Hood rat /

K'wan's latest (after Eve) is a meandering trip across Harlem with plenty of pit stops for vice and violence. Yoshi is a stripper who prostitutes herself for extra cash; Rhonda is a promiscuous and abusive mother of three; Reese is a scabrous, demanding kept woman; and Billy is an attractive, sporty woman with a healthy distrust of the men who live in their Harlem 'hood. All of the women get sucked into drama involving neighborhood rappers, drug dealings, abortion, fistfights, catfights, shootings, rape, AIDS or good, old-fashioned drunkenness. There's a bevy of minor characters, each involved in intersecting subplots, though these don't so much coalesce as run their course. The most interesting story involves Paul, a man who's trying to go straight and become an artist, and who's also dating a respectable lawyer named Marlene, but things are destined to end badly. None of the characters rises above stereotype and the plotting is mechanical, but the big draw here is the electric prose, which is imbued with profane, comic lyricism. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

In LaMarche's first novel, the life of New England teen Ted LeClare is turned upside down the summer before high school when his friend Bobby Dennison is accidentally shot at Ted's house with a gun Ted loaded. Ted's guilt about what happened, along with an ongoing investigation that could implicate him in Bobby's death, sends him on a downward spiral. He finds solace and a degree of acceptance by becoming involved with American Youth, a group of neo-Nazi teens who act out their anger against middle-class newcomers to town and who regard Ted as something of a hero because he owns a gun. He participates in their vandalism and even becomes involved with the ex-girlfriend of one of the group's leaders-until their actions begin to hit too close to home and he must make a decision. LaMarche's style can distance the reader from the characters at times, making this raw and often violent coming-of-age tale less emotionally compelling than it might have been. Still, it's a worthwhile purchase for public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/06.]-Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.