The Coldest Winter Ever

Another great read of my teens that had me looking for real versions of the people described in this book, aka I wished I lived in this book!

It was like an action-packed movie; all the details of the story came to life in my head at the time I read it. Books like this one made me wish I could tell stories like this.

What can you say about a 90s hip hop influenced urban set novel that begins in the protagonist’s voice: “I came busting out of my mama’s coochie on December . . .” nothing except I was all in from line 1!

Sister Souljah takes you on the can’t look away though you want to, self-destructive journey of ghetto princess Winter Santiago and shows the cost of a violent, nihilistic, contemporary worldview and economic inequity. Good drama, great pacing, heavyweight implications, and a convincing contemporary vernacular narrative voice make this one a must-read.

Souljah’s novel reaffirmed what other great voice novels… show more.

This is the first book I bought as an adult. It’s my all-time favorite urban fiction novel. And it’s one of the reasons I started writing. I loved the first-person narrative. Souljah’s writing puts the reader in Winter’s shoes from the very start. I could feel everything the teen protagonist was going through. Readers are placed in the middle of the action. My favorite character in the story was a mysterious figure named Midnight. He is a brave but humble lieutenant to a prominent underworld businessman. Souljah eventually wrote a book inspired by this character. The Coldest Winter Ever is… show more.