Publisher/Date: Apricot Books International, Feb. 2008
Genre(s): Contemporary Fiction, Bisexual
Pages: 224
Rating:
If you pick up DOWN LOW SISTAHS, here’s a warning: Read at your own risk.
Urban author Wakiem Freeman’s tale of sistahs gone wild is blunt in its approach, to the point that it might offend the delicate black lesbian reader. The eye-opening plot centers around a dude named Nicor, who can’t seem to find a straight sistah to save his life. He tells the story in the most graphic fashion, his exploits downright dirty.
How it all begins is with the surprise his girlfriend Tamar drops on his 25th birthday: she has a girlfriend. This comes after dating him for six months and seeing future with the tall beauty. While he imagined they’d be married and having babies, she was slipping out her female lover. Nicor is incensed, hating the fact he was played like a fiddle.
Nicor is determined to find an honest woman with no lesbian tendencies. Instead he runs into female after female with a scandalous past of licking the cat. Either they’re straight forward with it (no pun intended) or play it off by claiming “that’s just my cousin.” Nicor gets fed up with lies and decides to expose these down low sistahs for what they are. He’s tired of men getting browbeaten about having DL inclinations, when women are out here wilin’ out.
His revenge occurs when Nicor writes a song about these women and catches superstar media attention. It all comes together for the befuddled brotha – until Tamar attempts to re-enter his life.
Freeman, to his credit, does give a candid male perspective to women living double lives, unbeknownst to their male partners. This behavior does happen, but is it possible that every woman he dates has a female lover? What I also didn’t care for was the explicit sex scenes Nicor had with different (read: a lot) women that didn’t add much value to the story. It offended me that he can denounce down low sistahs for their callousness, but he could sleep with woman after woman with little regard. The disrespect surely goes both ways.
The author does grab your attention – even if it’s the wrong kind.
Reviewed May 2008
I would have to agree with the review of “Down Low Sistahs”. I felt that Mr Freeman bit off more than he could chew by attempting to address the “phenomenon” (if you can call it that) of women on the DL. While readers look for a sense of fantasy in a book, “Down Low Sistahs” was borderline hyperbole. It was very difficult to connect with any of the characters, especially the main character, Nicor (who turned out to be an aspiring singer, but we didn’t find this out until the last 20 pages of the book). Throughout the whole book, he flip-flopped from being a possibly decent albeit scorned brother looking for a good woman, to an all out DOG who could care less about being in a relationship. There were paragraphs of dialogue without any indication as to who was speaking and breaks inserted into the most odd places. I won’t even start on the grammatical errors and inconsistencies in the storyline that slipped through the editing process. Don’t waste your money
When I read urban books I automatically have a bias towards them a far as the execution is concerned, I didn’t see too much of that, after reading Down low Sistahs, I wanted more. I felt the author addressed an issue that not only reflects the times, but also guides it, which is what a true artist does. As a lesbian reader, I wasn’t as offended as the reviewer, maybe because I understood his point of view as a straight man in the REAL world. I have 2 brothers and I’ve witnessed the deceit and games they play. I think Down low Sistahs should have been a 6 star review. I GOT what the book really is about. It made me think hard about my own life and wonder why no studies are being done on Mr. Freeman’s topic.
Well, Brea, that’s why Sistahs on the Shelf is here: to present readers with books regarding their sexuality but leaving it up to women to make up their own minds. I value your opinion, and invite you to share more.
I found Mr. Freeman’s book, while eye-opening, also to be a tad shallow. I don’t feel like it’s as realistic as you say. Maybe there should be studies to really see how many women really are on the down low.
And I think deceit and game-playing goes for both sexes, whether gay or straight. And you are a lesbian, right?