Got my first negative comment on Weeds of Detroit while running ads for the preorder release. It hit me square on in the weirdest way.
The book was posted only for preorders, and though the paperback was only live for one day at the time of the post, the ebook hadn’t yet gone live, so the man who commented wouldn’t have been able to have a copy shipped to him, read it, and post.
The comment came from a black man (at least the man on his thumbnail was), who lived in Detroit. He shared the ad with one word above it, “trash”.
And I understand.
Weeds of Detroit has been published in this time when racial tensions are carrying a big charge. And here I am, some white girl who spent six months as a runaway in a tough motel, and thinking I have something to say about it. The man who commented on my post must’ve been moved in some way in order to take the time to share the post and criticize a book he hadn’t read.
What the man didn’t know is that Weeds of Detroit is about the 1986 Detroit that I experienced. It is the story of people…black, white, middle eastern, drug-addicted, hard-working, hooking, caught-in-the-system people, who were just trying to play the tough game of life in a way that would win them their survival.
There’s racism depicted in the book–but I depicted it as I saw it: evenly spread around between blacks, whites, and arabs. Weeds of Detroit a slightly gritty read, pulling the edge of the curtain back on drug addicts, prostitutes, even cops who don’t do their job and ones who do far more. But what I hope people get from it all is akin to my girl, Lael, as she stares down the barrel of a gun and comes to a finite understanding of humanity (that trash happened).
So, I’d like you to decide for yourself. If you’d like to try the book, you can download a preview HERE for FREE. You’ll also get signed up for my newsletter, which will introduce you to my teen/young adult Misty Provencher catalog of fantasy reads, as well as my Misty Paquette adult catalog of contemporary romances, literary fiction, and erotica.
And we’ll become friends.
Happy reading,
Misty Paquette