8 Ball Chicks: A Year in the Violent World of Girl Gangs

by Gini Sikes and Sikes

Book Overview

Dismissed by the police as mere adjuncts to or gofers for male gangs, girl gang members are in fact often as emotionally closed off and dangerous as their male counterparts. Carrying razor blades in their mouths and guns in their jackets for defense, they initiate drive-by shootings, carry out car jackings, stomp outsiders who stumble onto or dare to enter the neighborhood, viciously retaliate against other gangs and ferociously guard their home turf...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385474326
• ISBN13: 9780385474320
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Awesome

I actually really enjoyed this book to the point where I couldn’t put it down. I loved how real the author makes you feel like you are there. I’ve watched documents with the author and girl gangs and this book is the best if you want to know more about what girl gangs go through.

Utterly haunting

This is the best book I've read in a long time. I couldn't put it down. It was both fascinating and frightening to look into the world of girls in gangs. It's very sad how most of the time neither male gang members nor police officers see any value in the girls, most of whom are depicted as being intensely intellignet and insightful. They're a group of people who slip through the cracks, so to speak; they're neglected by social workers, police think they're worthless, and male gang members think there's nothing wrong with beating a girl, even if she's pregnant. This book shocked me.

Incredibly enlightening & haunting

An unbelievably eye opening book to the difficulty many of our youth face that details much of the circumstances in which many of them live. Haunting. Frigtening. It's chilling to realize that most of us never even see what goes on - but we do feel the repercussions, we live with the consequences, we deal with the societal costs every single day, but we are unaware of how these lives get lived out, how the cards are dealt to these young people and how everyone in society is somehow intertwined, even though living in ignorance. Crisp, well written, this work chronicles the lives of many teenage girs from cities in the US and just how and what gang life means to them. It endeavors to reveal the hard reality. For example revealing that many children come from gang parents - a culture being passed to the next generation. I'd always thought it was the other way around - kids the problem and the parents suffered. WOW did this book open my eyes! It records the bleak futures and the little glimmer of hope for getting out of gangs - unwanted pregnancy. Anything to leave the life! Compelling and eye opening. I really enjoyed the book and enjoyed getting an education as to what is happening with much of our youth. It helps answer why the difference in kids today. Helped me learn what is going on in my own city and since reading the book have I been involved in learning more and helping more. Even got to witness first hand some of the things recorded in '8 ball chicks'.

Dispelling generalizations about girl gangsters

As someone who's read about gangs before, I found this book particuarly helpful because it detailed the various roles girls may play in gangs -- from Mama Sheik, a leader of an autonomous girl gang to Alicia, who is basically a sexual punching bag for the boys. People may not want to read an the ugly truth, but this book opens one's eyes to what happens to the more vulnerable girls, as well as telling the story of the stronger ones.

Choking and brutal...

8 Ball Chicks is a book that i can't but down, I read Do or Die and it's nothing compared to that. I was chocked to learn about what gang girls go through and what's so disturbing, is that they feel like they don't have a way out, no education, money, they have kids at 15 years old from gang rape and they don't even report it. Reading this book just made me want to continue in that field and maybe be able to help because even if you don't know them, you read about there lives and at some parts, i was frustrated and at others, i just wanted to cry because it's so real and powerful. Gini did a good job and i give her great apprciation for writing a book so real about what people try so hard to hide. Read it...