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Summary: Street Gang's become the only way of life
Review: This book was pretty much an eye opener. It showed the life of a LA gang member and how his whole life if built around gang banging. I recommend this book to people who don't understand what people lives are and try to criticize. What would you do if you were brought up in that scope. Read it and understand it and you may open your eyes a bit.
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Summary: ¿Children gone wild in a concrete jungle of poverty and rage
Review: .....they are armed and dangerous". These words, written by an LA gang member who found his loyalty and respect on the streets as a Crip at the age of 11 years old. From the moment I started to read this book I felt like I was stepping into a parallel universe. A world where children riding ten speeds carry automatic weapons, and shoot down anyone who has dared to cross the line into their territory. They are Gang-Bangers and they live and die for their "Set" or gang. They come up in the ranks of the prison system like other children are oriented to boarding school and college.Monster Kody has arrived and he is true to his Set and a leader among men. He has known nothing but his militaristic way of life for as long as he can remember. He knows never to be caught on the streets of South Central without his weapon; to do so could be deadly. He stands point when he enters the supermarket with his mom, and shoots when a rival gang member is spotted in produce. This sounds like insanity, and it is, but that doesn't make it any less real. By the age of 19 Kody feels like he has aged beyond his years, and rightfully so. He has been at war for almost a decade. He realizes that he has to be a father to his children. He wants more for them, and he wants to break the cycle of New Afrikans killing New Afrikans. It is at this point that he decides to change his name and take on a new direction in life. Shakur is an intelligent individual that has much to offer. I was amazed by his insights and the words flowed along the page with ease. I usually don't care for books written with a lot of dialect, in this case street talk, but he did it in such a way that it enhanced the book. I hope you find your peace Sanyika and spread it among the people. You are surely capable of anything you set your mind out to do. Kelsana 6/25/01
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Summary: FINALLY- A REAL, RAW DEPICTION OF INNER-CITY LIFE
Review: As a former gang-member and now a college graduate, I am amazed at the rawness and truth that Monster Kody depicts. This book will open eyes to all the middle America white folks who pretend that this epedemic does not exist. How nice it must be to sit in your gated communities, insulated from the horrible truth: minorities have been put in ghettos for a reason and a cause. I noticed there were a handful of negative reviews for this book, which is not suprising. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM. This book is shocking, painful and a document to the lives of black youth in America's ghettos. White people have no idea.
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Summary: Survivin' in the Hood Called Life
Review: This is a fantastic book about gang warfare from the late 70s to the late 80s. In the book Shakur chronicles a young man's struggles and successes in a world of hatred. It begins with him at his sixth grade graduation and how later that night he was sent on a mission by the Crips in order to be initiated; thus his gangbanging career began. Shakur advances quickly through the gang ranks, and by the age of fourteen gains the pseudonym "Monster" after beating a victim viciously into a comatose state. Throughout the book he painstakingly shows how the gang system is organized. The "supergangs"-- the Crips and the Bloods--are broken into smaller units, each of which covers only a block. Shakur describes how each gang has its own flag, customs, language, philosophy, and in most cases their own Gross National Product. A good portion of the book centers upon the gang war between Shakur's gang, Eight Tray Gangsters, and another Crip gang known as the Rollin' Sixties. Towards the end of the book Shakur becomes more militant in his voice and begins to change his ways by becoming a member of the New Afrikan Independence Movement and a crusader against the causes of gangsterism. I strongly recommend this book due to its strong lessons of survival and courage. Shakur's writing style is easy to follow and his use of prose is very good. Although this is a very violent book, it is a book that puts you into a whole other culture full of surprises, excitement, and danger.
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Summary: It's a G-Thang
Review: This book was awesome! It really opened my eyes to what inner city kids have to go through. I knew it was tough on them, but I had no idea it was that tough. Sanyika is an extremely powerefull writer because he doesn't mask the truth, he comes right out and tells you everything. That's what really made this book, you knew he wasn't keeping anything from you. It was amazing to me that he told us about crimes he was never even charged for, that takes real guts. I'd suggest this book to people with open minds, because there is a lot of detail on killings. The killings are what confused me the most because he didn't seem to have any remorse. It's hard for me to believe that you could kill somebody, and not seem to care at all. In the end I felt really sorry for Sanyika and his friends because the system had let them down so many times. All in all this is a great tell all book. Sanyika is a very true to life writer who has the gift to make himself a great writer.
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Summary: Monster, an American culture classic
Review: I can't say enough about this book. It has everything. It's an incredible story, well written, descriptive, and has unbelievable true life characters. The book takes the reader into the forbidden underground world of gangland South central Los Angeles. It provides insight into this infamous and sad chapter of American cultural history firsthand (from the safety of your middle American home). You feel like you are right there on the streets. You can feel the heat of LA and tension with in the neighborhoods during the mid 80's when gangster culture was forming and exploding. Monster Cody is a powerful characture, a warrior, relentless. This book will give you a whole new perspective on the people of South central Los Angeles and the realities of their everyday lives.
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Summary: Astonishing.
Review: I grew up in Southern California completely insulated from life in South Central Los Angeles. This book was a real eye opener on what really gos on oin the gangs of Los Angeles. It is a much more brutal world than I ever imagined. This book is a page turner. I could not put it down until I was finished. Everything written by the author rings true, until the end when he explains how he was sent back to jail.
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Summary: Read it in one day
Review: Outstanding book. Not a wasted letter on any page. This book will slap you with truth--however raw and merciless. Sometimes the truth hurts. English teachers try to give us whites a "black" perspective by making us read classic fiction which doesn't recognize the fact that equality is far from found in our America. This book does not afford that luxury. We ought to be more concerned about how it is today than how it was. If nothing else, this book is very important.
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Summary: Monster
Review: Everyone hears the rap music about gang life, but without living in the ghetto no one really know what it is all about. Kody Scott, a.k.a. Monster Kody, an ex Eight Tray Crip gang member gives a first hand story of what gives them their motive and an inside look of how gang life is. In music videos ghetto life is almost glorified. Monster explains all the struggles that come along and it is a way of life for most kids and teenagers growing up in South Central Los Angeles. After a long life experience of being a gang banger, Kody Scott turns his life around in jail to better himself and make others aware of the true side effects of gang life. This book gives an inside look about what real gang life in all about. Kody Scott goes in to great depth and vivid detail about his personal experiences as he changes from a gangster to an enlightener. Kody was initiated by the street hoodlum at the age of eleven and began his useless fighting against other "hoods" and gangs. Monster Kody became widely known for his ruthlessness and will to never give up. He was brutal and ferocious. He was always ready to go out and fight and kill his opponents. There was never any fear in his eyes and no stopping him. Not even his own mother could keep him in the house, he would just run out through his window in the wide frightening gang world that Monster Kody Scott had gotten himself deep into. There had been through so much. Not even the harshest things stopped or affected him at the time. He had seen it all: I'd had to open my eyes and ears to hear the sounds of clips being pushed in and weapons being cocked, screeching car tires, running feet, the hunted and the hunters, the sudden blasts of gunfire; to see the twisted, lifeless bodies, the wounded still trying to run or crawl, the yellow homicide tape being strung, the tears over a family's lack of funds for a proper burial, the drugs, the alcohol, the angry faces- this process, the way of life for so many, repeated itself over and over (p. 376). With violence like this it is hard to think there would be no feelings or emotions. People such as Kody Scott become cold and hard as stone. Nothing could surprise him and the so the life of a gangster continued to swallow him up. In South Central Los Angeles at this time a person was either in a gang for protection and family or on his own to fight things by himself. It was a way of life. This book portrayed murder and robbery as a way of life and a way to survive instead of a crime. These gang members were not afraid of the law or going to jail. Monster Kody was given a long sentence to a maximum-security cell. Members knew that if they were strong and true gang members that they would have to go to jail at least one time. If they didn't they felt that they weren't making any contribution and progress out on the streets. They started their gang violence in the jails as well. There was no remorse for their actions and there was always a feelings and a certainty that they were coming back. Kody Scott had been through a lot. He knew he needed to get out. He recounts his occurrences vividly of his gangbanging days: Unlike many gang members who count on their return to jail, Kody Scott wanted to change his life around. "Gangsterism continues. But more importantly, the struggle to eradicate the cause of gangsterism continues. And it is this struggle to which I am dedicated (p.377)." Kody Scott dedicated his life to stop these crazy events of casual murders and to stop gangster mentality that a long time ago he began. Even though it seems like an easy task, to get out of a gang is a hard thing. When a person tries to get out, they lose their respect and the rest of the gang members are against them. Kody fought hard and became a Black Nationalist. He didn't understand how black could be killing blacks and for what? He also became a member of the New Afrikan Independence Movement and a fighter against gangster life. I recommend this book completely because of its strong and realistic view of gang life. It tells the real facts and explains that it is something that needs to be stopped. People such as Kody Scott have now dedicated their lives to this end. This book made me realize how lucky I am to live in such a great place that we don't have to worry about being trapped in a violent world. This book was powerful and moving. It was one of those books you just couldn't put down. The drawback of this book was that it was disturbing. It was so realistic and in depth about what one human being could do and think of doing to another. Some parts were hard to read and it was hard to see that some characters in the book weren't even affected by the things going on around him. This book was powerful and real. It gave a strong inside look of what life in a ghetto is really about.
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Summary: Best Book of all time
Review: I cant say i can relate to this book because of the fact that im not a gangbanger. One thing i can say is that if you want an indebth look at the gang culture in L.A this is a must. This book makes you feel like you are a part of it but at the same time their is a truth to be told and that is the Gangbanging culture is a hard fact and this book contains gruesome violence and for anyone who is thinking of joining any of these gangs i urge them to listen to what Sanyika is saying in the book its wrong.
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