A Hustler's Wife by Nikki Turner
Drama quickly unfolds in the first chapter of "A Hustler's Wife" as the reader quickly realizes that Des, one of the main characters is sentenced for murder and is quickly hauled to prison. The love of his life, Yarni, the narrator of the story is stunned and doesn't know what to do. Yarni met Des at the tender age of fifteen and he quickly became a huge part of her life. When Des goes to prison, Yarni, who recently graduated from high school, must fend for herself. She quickly assimilates herself to Des' world of drug dealers, hustlers and gold diggers in order to keep herself in the lifestyle she's used to. Yarni soon becomes engrossed in the game but doesn't realize how deep she is, until a a series of events makes her take a look at the life she made for herself.
I was instantly caught up in the plot of "A Hustler's Wife" but was soon scratching my head as the first few pages began with Des receiving a guilty verdict for murder. It then jumped to Yarni remembering when she first heard about the murder to Yarni remembering the first time she met Des. Confused? So was I. Eventually, I got used to Turner's writing style and started enjoying the clever, but poorly executed, plot. However, my attention was so drawn to the grammatical errors and lack of character and scene development that it took away from the story. Also, I was introduced to so many characters, I started to lose track of who was who. As the story became more intricate, I was jumped from scene to scene with very little smooth transitions. At times, I wasn't sure who Yarni was conversing with and at one point, the writer contradicted herself (which just added to my confusion). Overall, if Turner had put more effort in editing "A Hustler's Wife" I would have loved it. Unfortunately, the choppy layout of the story took away from, what would have been, a great urban story.
Reviewed by Joy F. |
