Review
This book is based on the true story of the Queen Pen of the 1980s Los Angeles drug trade, Jemeker Thompson-Hairston.
Jemeker was out here making her paper and going hard just like the guys do it! But as I was reading the book, I could tell that she was a hustler from day one; from the time her family got evicted, she was thinking of ways in which she could make a “come up” so they would never experience that again – and she was only eight years old. She grew up wanting to be a gold medalist in the Olympics, but when she started making money selling weed it was a done deal.
Don’t get it twisted; this is not your average book where the man starts off in the game, gets killed, and then his woman picks up where he left off. Yes her man/hubby/baby daddy got killed; however, it was at HER persuasion that they expand their business from weed to cocaine. Matter of fact, Dapp (her hubby) was happy taking people’s money at gambling and selling weed. But when he was fatally shot, she was already knee deep into the drug trade, so she decided to sell just as hard as he did and kept it moving. But she wasn’t moving nickels and dimes – this chic moved weight! She sold from one end of the US to the other and every place in between. Because it’s like this – when you get big in the drug game, it’s not just about your pockets…it’s a lot of pockets and mouths that depend on you being on top of your game. She wanted to grieve for her hubby and she did, but not as long as she would have liked. So she put her “big girl drawls” on and got busy!
And as always in any book that tells the drug game, there is drama, BS, haters, and violators. Those four things are what led to her indictment and prison time, but a strong faith and family is what kept her up. I definitely recommend this book and not because she was a woman playing on a man’s territory, but because she told how it truly is in the drug game and ultimately that the only thing you can rely on is a higher power.
This book is available is available on Amazon for $9.78 in Kindle version and $17.99 in Hardcover. On Barnes and Noble site the book is $10.99 in Nook version and $18.00 in Hardcover. On Apple, the book is $10.99 in iBooks version. The book is not available in Paperback.
Until next time,
Peace,
The Notorious Reader
About the Author
OK OK OK true to life stuff I’m going to have to download this one!
Empress Journee,
This book even surprised me because I was under the impression Jemeker picked up where her hubby left off. But in reading you will see that she was the real brains behind the organization. A true ride or die chic.
I saw this special on American Gangsters and I was super curious about the book BUT the reviews were not so great so I did not invest. Now you have made me want to grab it up. Thanks NR!
The Book Chick,
Yeah if you were reading the ones from Amazon, the book did not fair well and I think that half the people were either expecting her to have done something different because she was a woman and the other half may have been disappointed because the story was too similar to all the other gangsta style, drug books. I was surprised myself!