Hold Love Strong tells the tale of a young African American boy Abraham, being born into a New York ghetto, growing into manhood, and eventually finding a way to escape the ghetto. Abraham's upbringing is filled with drugs, violence, crime, and death. It's a harsh unforgiving life and the fact that Abraham is able to rise above the ghetto and in the end attend college in New England is no doubt inspirational and encouraging. But in my mind, the happy ending was way too over done. The ending was just too neat and squeaky clean and it significantly took away from the authenticity depicted earlier in the novel. ( )

Fantastic read. Through Matthew Goodman's writing he allowed you enter Ever. You could see the characters, you could feel their sorrow, their pain, their love for one another; you understood them. Ever jumped out of the pages, the streets, the smells, the buildings and its people. Beautifully descriptive. ( )

I agree that this novel is well-written, which seems to add a sense of detachment and dreaminess to the otherwise raw narrative. The subjects which Abraham discusses in his lyrical prose are despair, ghetto life, drug use, and abuse. To do so in such an abstract rhythm creates a layer between the reader and the narrative. ( )

Abraham was born to an unwed mother in the projects in NY City. Although he can see the chaos around him, and knows his family must get out of the ghetto cycle, it's difficult to do. When his two strongest role models, his star basketball player cousin, and his mother, both fall prey to their environment, Abraham's hopes are dashed. Raw emotion and tragedy fill this book, and it is not pleasant to read. Told from the point of view of a ghetto teen, the writing is so lyrical that it feels untrue to the story it's telling. ( )

A story we have all heard but Goodman brings to life the horrors of ghetto life. I could not put the book down and I am grateful that in my educational career I may have helped a few students escape from the harmful entrapments of urban existence. ( )