Go Ask Alice or Madea

I won't say Reginald L. Hall's In Love With a Thug is bad per se; I'm just not sure I'm part of the target audience.

We start with Juan, who at the beginning is in love/fooling around with Darnell, who is one of the title Thugs. Indeed, in order to help Juan achieve his dream of opening his own salon, he convinces Juan to help him rob a bank. Which doesn't go well. Juan does make off with the money, but not before Darnell, a security guard, a pregnant teller, and another man die.

And then we return to Juan as he opens his own salon in Philadelphia. One which caters to so many name dropped celebrities, I'm surprised Mr. Hall hasn't been sued. On the first day of business, we meet the other Thug, Bryant, who appears bearing bootleg DVDs he's trying to sell to Juan's upscale clientele.

It's only a few pages before Juan and Bryant are making the beast with two backs, and Juan is smoking the devil's lettuce laced with white powder provided by Bryant. (Juan, prior to this point, hasn't touched drugs other than a bit of alcohol here and there.)

It gets progressively stupider, as Bryant's baby mama comes in and maces Juan; half the stylists get beat up at various points; we learn all about Juan's daddy molesting him; his best friend needs a kidney transplant, finds out he has full blown AIDS and high blood pressure and dies.... Juan winds up getting arrested when one of the other baby mamas calls in a tip on Juan, and the cops find quite a few drugs under the floorboards in Juan's closet. Juan's time awaiting arraignment and bonding out is filled with sex with a cellmate, doing L'il Kim's hair.... Then he has aa drugged up three way with Bryant and Bryant's cousin, after which Bryant kicks Juan out of his house after beating him again....

Juan's dad dies, his mother never forgives Juan for telling her about the molestation....

We keep hearing how Juan is a good person who has God in his life, yet then he confesses to writing a bunch of fraudulant checks in 3 states....

And then a twist at the end that's remarkably stupid.

I will say I did enjoy the presentation of the Balls and the Houses, which most folks know of through either Pose or Paris is Burning.

Honestly, Juan's descent is almost as fast as the narrator of the old Junior High Classic Go Ask Alice with less subtlety than a Tyler Perry morality play. I spent the majority of the book wanting to smack some sense into him.Like I said, I'm not sure I'm the target audience, since to me this is both unrealistic and gratuitous.