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This book has the typical first-book-of-a-series problem.
The typical first-book-in-a-series problem is that you have to introduce the main character (and his pals) as well as tell a story. And so a normal-length first-book-of-a-series just contains a short story combined with the protagonist’s background story. In this case, the chapters mostly alternated between IQ’s formative years and the “short story’s” crime mystery (which was: who is trying to kill the famous rap star?).
Ultimately, I found IQ to be an interesting character, but it took a while for me to get there. Why was IQ which a good driver? The explanation came about 100 pages later? Why was he such a good shot? Yep, the explanation came later. But at least the book provided an explanation rather than making the reader just accept that those capabilities were part of his overall skill set.
Regardless, this book’s crime mystery was not for me. I simply am not interested in hearing a bunch of inner city youths call each other “nigga”. I’m not a fan of rap music. And I don’t usually choose stories that take place around drug dealers, violent gangs or bootie babes.
Oddly, the chapter I enjoyed the most was the next-to-last chapter. That chapter was part of IQ’s background story and explained how he figured out that he could utilize his powers of observation, reasoning and intelligence to solve crimes in his neighbor and elsewhere. More chapters like that one might make this series a winner.
Bottom line: This first book was not that interesting to me. But I might eventually read the next book in the series as the main character (IO) grew on me.
The typical first-book-in-a-series problem is that you have to introduce the main character (and his pals) as well as tell a story. And so a normal-length first-book-of-a-series just contains a short story combined with the protagonist’s background story. In this case, the chapters mostly alternated between IQ’s formative years and the “short story’s” crime mystery (which was: who is trying to kill the famous rap star?).
Ultimately, I found IQ to be an interesting character, but it took a while for me to get there. Why was IQ which a good driver? The explanation came about 100 pages later? Why was he such a good shot? Yep, the explanation came later. But at least the book provided an explanation rather than making the reader just accept that those capabilities were part of his overall skill set.
Regardless, this book’s crime mystery was not for me. I simply am not interested in hearing a bunch of inner city youths call each other “nigga”. I’m not a fan of rap music. And I don’t usually choose stories that take place around drug dealers, violent gangs or bootie babes.
Oddly, the chapter I enjoyed the most was the next-to-last chapter. That chapter was part of IQ’s background story and explained how he figured out that he could utilize his powers of observation, reasoning and intelligence to solve crimes in his neighbor and elsewhere. More chapters like that one might make this series a winner.
Bottom line: This first book was not that interesting to me. But I might eventually read the next book in the series as the main character (IO) grew on me.