Sandtown is poor, drug infested and violent, in the past this has lead to it being the subject of many Baltimore based dramas including notorious series - The Wire. But what is really the truth that lies behind it all? This book looks into the history of the area, examining injustices, racial discrimination, corruption and the constant battle between gangs.

Often referred to as bodymoore and murderland, Sandtown did not have the best reputation, but when the world is against you people will do anything to survive and even more for a chance to get on top. This book takes an in depth look at gang rivalry, the characters that were at the forefront of this and the environment that led to the cultivation of this level of gang culture. It studies many characters such as TTG gang leader Montana Barronette (tana), Jan Grey (Ponyhead) a rival gang member and corner king who fed information to a local Police Officer.

Sad, but eye opening - the statistics around race and success in life are really astounding and saddening. Low levels of schooling and opportunities lead to a much reduced chance of future success. Casual racism and the acceptance of the notion that blacks are more violent than whites leads to more black people being put behind bars. Police harassment is documented amongst blacks in the area from childhood and some children are lead into a life of crime from as young as 9. What sort of chance do people have with all this stacked against them?

This is clearly a very well researched book with a lot of facts and statistics to back up what is being stated.

The narrator worked well for this book. Well read with good emphasis making it easy to follow. 3.5 rounded up

Gripping and fascinating the background to this account explains a great deal of why the gang culture evolved. I enjoyed the narration and everything about this audible listen. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity.

8.5/10
Picked this biography up because I'm rewatching The Wire and it's very good. Does a good job painting the human cost of the drug game and the people on both sides of it. Despite being nonfiction and taking place 15-20 years after The Wire, still has a lot of little connections, like the main detective being the son of Jay Landsman, etc. It's a huge shame that Baltimore (and many cities in the US) are still dealing with the exact same problems and the exact same solutions.

Mark Bowden is a fantastic writer who I have enjoyed since reading Black Hawk Down. Life Sentence is well written, especially the last half which gives a fantastic insight into the criminal investigation, the witnesses and court events. If I have any criticisms it is in the lack of insights and viewpoints to the gang suspects themselves. Definitely a good read!

Mark Bowden has taken us on a journey through the rough streets of Baltimore. He gives up an in-depth account of Sandtown's TTG (Trained to Go) gang. This book is well researched by Bowden reviewing wiretapped drug buys, undercover video, texts, social media posts, police interviews, and his own interviews of Tana himself. There is no finger pointing or leaning towards on side or the other. He just lays out the facts and circumstances that shapes this gang leader into who he became.

⭐️ rating: 3+

I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by L.J. Ganser. The story follows a gang in Baltimore City called TTG (trained to go) through their rise and fall. The protagonist is Montana “Tana” Barronette, who the author refers to as Baltimore’s deadliest gang leader.

I thought the subject material of the book was interesting, as I had never heard of Sandtown and did not know the extent of crime in Baltimore City. There was extensive detail regarding each person as well as the court cases. Bowden ends the book by providing ideas of reform, especially within schools and communities, in order to address the cycle of poverty and crime.

While I appreciated the concept of the book, I think it could’ve been expressed in a more thoughtful way. My biggest hang up is the white narrator saying the n word upwards of 10 times. They are all quotes, however they could be omitted or bleeped. Beyond that, the narrator was speaking in Ebonics, accent and all, when he was quoting - which made me uncomfortable as well. It is uncouth at best. Due to the content of the story and the language used, perhaps having a Black narrator seems more appropriate. Honestly, had I not received this as a free copy in order to write a review, I would’ve stopped reading (aka listening) because of these issues.

I received a copy of this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. #NetGalley #LilReads

I was intrigued by this true crime novel since I have lived in Baltimore City since early 2011. The story is a compelling deep dive into just one part of a complicated situation many cities face. I learned a lot while listening to this book, and heard some things that I experiences small portions of first hand. The narrator is extremely engaging. I recommend this audiobook, especially if you enjoy listening to true crime podcasts.

What I found truly tragic about this story was that Tana is the same age as me. With the circumstances he was born into (geographical, race), it led him down the path that he went on. I couldn't help but think that while he was doing X, I was doing Y. And I live my life having no notion of what he, and others in similar circumstances, are going through. I don't justify his actions and the illegal things he did but he was a very bright person and I cannot help but think that without the racial caste system and other institutional racism that he was born into, he would've had a very different life.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

What a sad tragic, gruesome story!

Such a gritty sad story that reverberates through neighborhoods of the poorest places to live and grow! We see life up close and personal to what it was like being in a gang.

Montana Barronette, was a very young man when crime came and tapped him on his shoulders. At thirteen, he was selling drugs and then quickly graduated into serious crimes with murder and mayhem as his companions.

This story will certainly make one realize that the lives of the inner city poor, (Baltimore's Sandtown) afforded people nothing. They became immune to the killings, the savagery, the loss of one's soul, because this is what they were being raised in.

It's truly a depressing story and although Mark Bowden offers what he thinks will cure what ails our poor black people, I felt his solutions held little merit.

Pouring more money into education might be a way, but not if the kids drop out before they finish high school. I believe we have to start educating the mothers, to make them understand that killing is not in their future and the care they give to their young children will help in turning them away from the dark. Kids can't be left to raise themselves and the cycle they come to accept has to be broken. People need to know they can change before any change can take place.

A very sad telling of what life in darkness produces.

Thank you to Mark Bowden, Grove Atlantic, and NetGalley for the ability to listen to this horrendous story which published April 11, 2023.

The details of this book were interesting and from that aspect, I was glad I got the opportunity to listen to it in advance for the exchange of my honest review.

I struggled with the narrator of this book, there are a lot of quotes and rap lyrics that he narrated that didn't hit for me. I find narration to be a lot like acting, you need to be able to play the part and the narrator for this particular book could not.

The last few hours of this book were the best in my opinion. There were many times in this book that I was confused as it was choppy and were all of a sudden talking about someone completely different with no acknowledgement.

I do think this is an important read. As many people assume a person chooses gang life and while that may be true in part, this book really showed what your environment can do to your future.

If this book had a different narrator or I had read a physical copy, it might have been 4 stars for me, personally.

Life Sentence shows the rise and fall of Montana "Tana" Barronette in the Baltimore neighborhood of Sandtown. Tana led TTG, or Trained to Go, a gang linked to numerous murders in the neighborhood. Mark Bowden details TTG's various crimes and the work of the police and eventually federal investigators trying to solve them. He also gives a broader history of Baltimore to give context to why Sandtown exists as it does today.

Bowden's access to the evidence prosecutors had in building their case against TTG allows Bowden to detail the lives of the TTG members and people they interacted with. Bowden makes sure to keep the characters complex, rather than boiling them down to characitures, something that can happen all too often when telling the stories of gang members. TTG was a product of its environment, but also a group operating in such a violent and heinous manner that the police pushed to bring a case against them. Bowden is an excellent non-fiction writer and takes everything he has learned about TTG and Baltimore and crafted it into a compelling narrative.

I live three miles away from where most of the events of this book take place, but its an entirely different world due to the ongoing effects of discrimination in Baltimore. This book works like a modern update of The Wire, examining the same neighborhood an dpower structure that fights, enables, and ignores the drug trade. This book will interest people who want a view of the influences that can make people join and remain in a gang, and those who want to track a case from the influences leading to a crime all the way to its eventual prosecution. It works as a history book and a true crime book by examining the larger picture of Baltimore.

As for the audiobook, L.J. Ganser is a very qualified audiobook narrator, and for most of this book does an excellent job. However, a substantial amount of this book involves direct quotes from the TTG gang, including AAVE and the n-word. Ganser does his best, but it sounds inauthentic at best, making me switch to the print version for those chapters, and offensive at worst. I wish they had chosen a different narrator for the book, but Ganser does a commendable job under the circumstances.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for a copy of Life Sentence in exchange for an honest review.

#LifeSentence by #markbowden is about a #baltimore gang and their leader #Montana & the #FBI take down of this group. Unfortunately the audiobook was narrated by a white man who is unfortunately having to quote this gangster and others utilizing gang slang which includes massive use of the n word among others that I just cringe hearing coming from a white narrator. Although the author himself is white and does the story really well by divulging the white privilege and prejudice of the city of Baltimore for more than a few centuries, and although I found it so intelligently done and was learning from it, I had to #DNF the audio version of this book. I definitely would’ve continued on had the narrator been African American because at least it would’ve felt naturally said and authentic but to hear it from a white man was too much for me. Even he sounded uneasy, uncomfortable, and unnatural with what he was saying. Naaaa I can’t. I would recommend the story and feel that the author does a great job describing how Baltimore historically segregated black people long after the civil rights movement took place, and how they disenfranchised and denigrated the black community for centuries, still, the narration is so poorly thought out. It seems disrespectful to listen to. Do you all understand what I even mean? It’s not sounding authentic. I was actually hoping that since the author did so many interviews and research that there would honestly have been some live tape of those; instead what I got was badly quoted gangsta talk coming out of an awkward white man. #CrINGE my dudes, respectfully, just NO.

This was a very well-written and informative deep dive into an inner-city gang and its leader (Montana Barronette) in Baltimore, Maryland. I enjoyed learning about Tana, and how he and many others grow up in a life of crime and continue on with it in their adult lives because that's all they know. This case was quite fascinating and you can tell the author did his research.

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for this arc.

This is a well written book. The author has clearly done his research. It’s like being in the courtroom. It’s a true crime lovers dream book!

"Life Sentence" escorts you to the dangerous streets of the Sandtown neighborhood of Baltimore, and inside one of the most dangerous inner city gangs, TGG - Trained To Go. Author Mark Bowden provides the distressing story of how the gang caused havoc in the community, being linked to more than twenty killings. The author shares the alarming criminal data surrounding gang life in this well research work. The gang was ultimately responsible for kidnappings, selling drugs, and murdering those that stood in their way. Thanks to incompetence and police corruption, the gang started feeling invincible in their "turf wars," even bragging about their thug behavior in self made videos. Gang members took foolish pride when a task force was organized to investigate their activities. Bowden takes you inside the courtroom, and shares the testimony that brought down this dangerous gang. The author also offers solutions to curbing gang violence, such as improving our public schools - as inner city schools are among the worst performing schools in the country. I highly recommend this disheartening, yet educational book.