Sign in with Facebook
Emily's Reviews > The Cartel
The Cartel (The Cartel, #1)
by
by
Urban fiction is the last on my genre list for a class I’m taking. I was pumped to try it out, since I volunteer at a jail library, and urban fiction is a common request. The Cartel series is extremely popular, so I chose that one to read.
I quickly realized I wasn’t going to like it, but when I found it on audio through the digital library, I decided to stick with it. Cary Hite is a good reader, except for when he’s trying to do accents (they all sounded Jamaican to me, whether it was someone from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, or Barbados), and he reads slowly enough that I could bump the speed to 1.5 and he still sounded fine.
I didn’t know what exactly to expect. The violence was no surprise, but I was shocked by how extreme it was. The frequent explicit and ickily-described sex scenes bothered me even more. I think I’m used to a lot more euphemism from other books I’ve read with sexy stuff.
At first, I thought the criminals (all the main characters) were being portrayed as heroes, and maybe some of them were supposed to be. I think Young Carter was. But more than anything, the book is a tragedy, with a major Romeo and Juliet vibe in Young Carter and Miamor’s relationship. Although certain aspects were hard to swallow as plausible, it was very realistic in the sense that no one was safe in the murder-infused lifestyle these characters lived.
I did actually care about some of the characters by the end, but I couldn’t stand the writing, especially the sex scenes. It was also annoyingly materialistic. No one could just put on a jacket or a dress or get in a car. We had to be told the brand name of everything or be pointed to how expensive the cars were.
One scene that made me smile was when two of the younger characters went to Borders to buy books. It was moment of sweet innocence in the midst of hatred and revenge. Plus, Borders.
I’m glad to have finally read something in this genre, since I’ve been curious about it for years, but I doubt I’ll be checking out anything else like it any time soon.
I quickly realized I wasn’t going to like it, but when I found it on audio through the digital library, I decided to stick with it. Cary Hite is a good reader, except for when he’s trying to do accents (they all sounded Jamaican to me, whether it was someone from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, or Barbados), and he reads slowly enough that I could bump the speed to 1.5 and he still sounded fine.
I didn’t know what exactly to expect. The violence was no surprise, but I was shocked by how extreme it was. The frequent explicit and ickily-described sex scenes bothered me even more. I think I’m used to a lot more euphemism from other books I’ve read with sexy stuff.
At first, I thought the criminals (all the main characters) were being portrayed as heroes, and maybe some of them were supposed to be. I think Young Carter was. But more than anything, the book is a tragedy, with a major Romeo and Juliet vibe in Young Carter and Miamor’s relationship. Although certain aspects were hard to swallow as plausible, it was very realistic in the sense that no one was safe in the murder-infused lifestyle these characters lived.
I did actually care about some of the characters by the end, but I couldn’t stand the writing, especially the sex scenes. It was also annoyingly materialistic. No one could just put on a jacket or a dress or get in a car. We had to be told the brand name of everything or be pointed to how expensive the cars were.
One scene that made me smile was when two of the younger characters went to Borders to buy books. It was moment of sweet innocence in the midst of hatred and revenge. Plus, Borders.
I’m glad to have finally read something in this genre, since I’ve been curious about it for years, but I doubt I’ll be checking out anything else like it any time soon.
Sign into ŷ to see if any of your friends have read
The Cartel.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
April 3, 2019
–
Started Reading
April 3, 2019
– Shelved
April 3, 2019
– Shelved as:
for-school
April 3, 2019
– Shelved as:
2019
April 5, 2019
–
43.0%
"I’m not enjoying this, but the audio set on 1.5 speed is helping me through."
April 6, 2019
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-5 of 5 (5 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Brittany
(new)
Apr 06, 2019 12:02PM
1 star?!? Did you light it on fire when you were done and light your pen cigarette from the flames?
reply
|
flag
😏 Perhaps. The authors have a pretty cool success story, which I read about when I was writing my reading journal. TBH, I thought about bumping up the rating by a star after I read about them. Scoring publishing contracts when they were 17, for example, is super impressive. But I still really didn’t like it, and I’ve already lit the pen cigarette so...the rating will probably remain unfluffed.
This book made me so super mad I gave it two stars because I couldn't stop reading this or book two and three but I refuse to read the rest. I wish I would of stole this book just so I didn't get rip off it's how much the authors make me able to feel as angry as they did with the writing and how unrealistic the story was to me. Book 2 is a waste other then Miamors past but I hate that character so much and I hate how she got away with murdering Taryn and the one going after Mecca when she (spoiler book 3 n 4 and more possibility) died in book 3 and gets to come back in book 4 and ultimately as a Diamond Baby and Breeze and Monroe who also gets to live is ok with her being in the cartel after she started the hit on Mecca and killed Taryn, their mother, but since Carter loves her it's ok but Mecca, the only character I really cared about (which allot of people hated but I had a soft spot for him when you realize why he was the way he was) gets murdered by Carter over Miamors problemic ass! And being pissed off is a common theme I feel when I read an Ashley and Jaquvis book (the dooemans series is the other series that pissed me off. I thought it was funny when the authors mentioned themselves in this book when breeze was getting taught a lesson on being smart by reading urban books lmao I'm sorry but the way I pictured it was Breeze and her man reading the Cartel and should of known her ass was gonna get kidnapped or even better she was suppose to be smarter reading urban books but Ashley and Jaquvis urban books aren't teaching noone to be street they don't even know the proper lenght someone on heroin detoxes off the drug. I'm just written their books off I don't care to read anymore of their books I don't think they have any real concept of the hood or the streets with how unrealistic their take on urban life is like, and not everything is Prada and ain't noone is killing my mother and being cool with the person who killed her and is laying up pregnant with my brother who cares more bout her then the family
So 1 star is a pretty accurate rating for this authors books
I had already forgotten that one of the books Breeze read was an Ashley and JaQuavis book! That knocked me right out of the story for a second. This is the only urban fiction I’ve read. Which authors do you like?
