Book Review - Sellout

STORYLINE:  Sellout is the story of three individuals (an African-American male and female, and a Caucasian female) who decide to date outside of their race for various reasons. They encounter prejudice from both sides of the fence and face their own challenges that come from their choices.

PLAYERS: 

Tammy McDonald – a strong woman whose last relationship was with a lazy thug-type character.  Tammy packs her bags and heads off the San Diego to start over, but has her own issues with black men dating white woman and decides to cross the fence anyway, as a result of her own situation.  

Terrell Jackson - lives in San Diego's and is an optometrist. He gets fed up with his drama queen girlfriend and decides he’s had enough of black women. Enter a parade of white females, his attempt at avoiding drama. Things don’t quite work the way Terrell thinks they will.

Penelope Miller - originates from the South but likes black men.  Complications arise via her racist brother and his friend, who has the hots for Penelope. Throw her (black) boyfriend, racist brother and the lusty ‘walnut-for-a-brain’ admirer together and somebody’s bound to get hurt.

I LIKED: Following each character’s story, seeing why they took the path they did and what made them eventually decide what was right for them. I identified with two of the three main characters and really enjoyed watching them work their way back to where they were determined not to go.

I COULD HAVE LIVED WITHOUT: remembering that racism exists and in this book, I saw it from the perspective of both black and white. It ain’t pretty from whichever side you look at it. However, the subject of racism provided a major conflict which worked well in this novel.

I have a pet peeve with black people not sounding as if they’ve had an education, when they've had one, but that’s my personal problem. I have the same nit with my countrymen. Anyway, the accent of the characters in Sellout made the work authentic.

OVERALL COMMENTS:  Pacing is important to me as a reader and I read the book within a few days, as time permitted.  The characters were vibrant and true-to-life. Based on characterization, it was easy to see why two out of three of the main players made their choices. There were some laugh-out-loud funny comments and situations and there were a few scenes that gave me anxious moments.

If anything, I thought the book was too short. I was getting ready to go a bit further with the budding romance between two of my favourite characters, but I was at the end of the book by that time.

SOURCE: I bought Sellout on Kindle.

RATING: Sellout was a truly awesome read.