I have a lot to say about this book that I'm not going to finish. In no particular order:

1. I thought about creating an "urban" tag for this book because that's what these kinds of books get called, but I decided against it because I don't like "urban" as a euphemism for "black". I may create an "african-american" tag.

2. I wanted to read something by EJD because he's so popular.

3. I picked Chasing Destiny because MY name is Destinee.

4. I did not enjoy reading this book. The sex scenes were pretty good, but they didn't make up for everything else.

5. Why didn't I like this book? There are a few reasons. As a nerdy white person from Seattle I had trouble hearing the voices of the characters in my head. Also, it felt like EJD didn't edit anything from real life. It's a novel! Skip the boring parts of conversations!

6. I may give another EJD book a try. Any recommendations?

( )

As always, EJD has provided an engaging and well-written story. This book was, plain and simple, fun to read. It's a very interesting story, but the way in which he weaves the various (peripheral) characters into a single plot is well-done. While he juggles a lot of characters, he gives them sufficient background for you to understand them and their motivations.

This is definitely worth your read. ( )

Could not find anything to read so picked this up. I enjoyed his writing and the story was excellent. A bit graphic and an unfamiliar side of LA. Not sure if all the stuff could have happened in just 2 days.

This is my favorite book. I read it when i was in high school in one night. ( )

This novel was a nice departure from his previous novel "Genevieve," that I didn't favor. The overall plot of the book held my attention from the beginning to the end. However it had certain parts in it were the dialogue dragged on and it could have been edited and gotten more to the point. EJD does not soothe the writer and give them what they want, but instead, cleverly twists away from the norm creating a controversial tale. This book is similar to the movie "Crash", the movie that showed how several different lives crashed into one another over a day or two in Los Angeles by just a few degrees of separation! The creativity was in how he managed to link all of these people together.

I love the way he incorporates current events like Hurricane Katrina and characters from previous books into his current works of fiction. The main character reads the billboard that's asking for information on the murderer of Lisa Wolf you instantly get a flashback to his novel "Drive me Crazy".

The ending was a bit abrupt, but tied up nicely. This is certainly Dickey's redemption... he came back strong with "Chasing Destiny" and as always I look forward to more by him. ( )