Crackhead

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Authors: Lisa Lennox

BOOK: Crackhead
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Lisa Lennox's debut novel transports us to the heart of the crack era—the South Bronx, New York, 1989.

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the crack epidemic swept through inner-city communities like the plague. Mothers abandoned their children and took to the street for a hit. Fathers sold everything they owned to get a taste. The crackhead was rampant. Some neighborhoods were never the same.

Enter Laci Johnson, a privileged, smart, beautiful teenage girl from across town, who teams up with the South Bronx Bitches—an infamous girl group known for chasing men and money. When the SBB becomes envious of Laci, they devise a plan to destroy her life.

Finding love in the most unexpected of places, Laci turns to a local drug dealer to help save her and heal the wounds of her new addiction.

Lisa Lennox is the pseudonym for
a bestselling author.

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COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY RVIE TAHILRAMANI/VETTA/GETTY IMAGES

ALSO BY LISA LENNOX

Crackhead II

Played

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New York, NY 10020
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2004 by Triple Crown Publications. Compilation and Introduction copyright © 2004 by Triple Crown Publications.

Originally published in 2004 by Triple Crown Publications.

Published by arrangement with Triple Crown Publications.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Atria Paperback edition March 2012

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lennox, Lisa.
    Crackhead : a novel / Lisa Lennox.—1st Atria Books trade paperback ed.
          p. cm.
1. Drug addicts—Fiction. 2. Young women—Fiction. 3. African
American women—Fiction. 4. Bronx (New York, NY)—Fiction.       
5. Urban fiction. I. Title.
PS3612.E5496C7 2012
813'.6—dc23                                                                                 2011035095

ISBN: 978-1-4516-6173-6 (print)
ISBN: 978-1-4516-6174-3 (ebook)

This book goes out to all those addicted to crack cocaine— with God all things are possible.

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction: Roll Call

Chapter 1: Diamond Girl

Chapter 2: Follow the Leader

Chapter 3: God Bless the Child

Chapter 4: Nasty Girls

Chapter 5: Criminal-Minded

Chapter 6: Girl Talk

Chapter 7: Schemin'

Chapter 8: On Cloud Nine

Chapter 9: Strictly Business

Chapter 10: Triple-Crossed

Chapter 11: Callin' Shots

Chapter 12: Me, myself, and I

Chapter 13: The Hit

Chapter 14: Growing Pains

Chapter 15: Family Ties

Chapter 16: That's what Friends are for

Chapter 17: It takes Two

Chapter 18: She's gotta have it

Chapter 19: Thinking of a Master Plan

Chapter 20: Make it Last Forever

Chapter 21: Too Little, Too Late

Chapter 22: Truth Hurts

Chapter 23: A Lover Scorned

Chapter 24: Unfinished Business

Chapter 25: What you won't do for Love

Chapter 26: The Big Payback

Chapter 27: Boston University

Acknowledgments

FOREWORD

STUDIES SHOW THAT
animals addicted to cocaine preferred the drug to food even when it meant possible starvation, and many users of its second cousin, crack, report being hooked after only the first use. This horrible addiction is three-fold: psychological, physical, and emotional.

The College of Communication, Boston University, September 1989

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