White Boys Packing Too by Soulja ChocMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
I struggled with this review. On the one hand, I am all for entertaining the masses and opening each other up to different cultures and experiences they may have no knowledge of yet. On the other hand, I am not a fan of fetishized versions of relationships, even in fiction i.e., you need to choose a white man if you want to be treated well and like a queen because black men just cheat on you and treat you like trash. This was what I got from the story. This was an opportunity to entertain and in that entertainment, your audience would have been inadvertently educated when myths are dispelled i.e. some “white boys aren’t packing”. I’m aware this is fiction and just for entertainment purposes, which is why I struggled with this review.
This story chronicled the lives & drama of two couples and the Raina & Jason and Imani & Steven. This interracial romance had very little romance or substance. There was too much time spent on the fact that “oh I’m with a white man” to develop the plot or the characters. The best friends spent so much time extolling the virtues of being with a white man who treats you like a queen as opposed to a black man who treats you like trash that it was little uncomfortable to read. I enjoy interracial romance, but not of fetishized versions of interracial relationships.
The good-
• Raina/Jason/Elise-Jason still legally married to Elise has a pregnant girlfriend who he wants to marry. However, once the wife discovers Jason is moving on with a black woman, she no longer wishes to allow him to move on and proceeds to cause drama and makes a very shocking reveal in book two.
• Imani/ Kenny /Steven- Imani and Steven are setup by their mutual friends and the relationship is immediate lust and love. Kenny who Imani was previously involved with didn’t cause too much drama. He was more of an afterthought in the story. There was some abused eluded to with one of the children, but nothing was made of it. I’m not sure why it was brought up.
The bad-
• Underdeveloped characters
• Superficial “plot”
• The transitions were a little rough
• Confusing timelines with Jason and Raina’s baby is walking and then in the next chapter, she is just learning to roll over.
• Few grammatical errors i.e. tense changes which led to incorrect word usage, question marks at the end of statements, misspelled words or incorrect acronyms used FMLA being called FEMA
• Incorrect word usage i.e. " I'm going to put you up on that" instead of "I'm going to hold you to that" in reference to holding someone accountable
• the dialogue at times could be sophomoric especially when the couples were supposed to be speaking in a romantic tone or when an attempt was made to show cultural differences. For example, In Book 2 Raina says “aww, I love you too baby. But don’t ever compare our love to what you and Elise had. Our love is genuine & strong. I love you like no other man I had ever known. You are my soulmate and best friend. There is nothing that I wouldn’t do to see us through whatever.” To which Jason responds “Bae that was some hood poetry, but I got the gist of what you were saying. “ What was hood about it? She spoke clearly no “ebonics” or “hood/ghetto referencing”.
Random-
• So if Elise had of let Jason have a threesome they would still be together? Why is she still on all his accounts? They've been legally separated for 3 yrs.
• Raina was under stress, but not in distress and given a clean bill of health. At 7 months, she ordered to be on bedrest with one baby? What did we miss?
• I’m a little surprised that the constant references to race i.e white boy this and white boy that didn't cause an issue in the relationship. The female characters referred to the
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