A review by ashliesydel
Finding Tamika by Erika Alexander

4.0

 Okay, so you know how every few months there's the debate on if audiobooks are real books. I've never paid much intention to it because I read all formats, and I know for me audiobooks are books. However, after coming across this title, I am now contemplating the validity of podcast being considered books. 

Finding Tamika came up under the Audible book search. It's listed on Goodreads and Storygraph. However, if you read the description, this is a collaboration of a 10-episode podcast That follows the disappearance and murder of a 24-year-old black woman. 

A woman, like many others who the police didn't look for, and botched their investigation by not securing crime scenes, and only focusing on one suspect. 

Had it not been for the fact that Tamika's aunt was actively working as a journalist and had connections and pull to get the public's attention and demand Justice be served, Tamika, like many others, may have just become a cold case. 

I really appreciated this story. And the fact that it was created to shed light on not just Tamika. But how black and brown missing persons are treated within the justice system. This is not an isolated incident, it's something I felt passionate about since my early twenties. Everyone knows who Lacey Peterson is, yet nobody knows who Latoya Figuero is. 

Both were pregnant women who went missing at the end were founded murdered by their partner. Music producer Damon Dash even offered an award for information on Latoya's disappearance, yet it never hit national news. 

I feel weird counting this as a book, because it is a podcast. I didn't care for the excessive music That played in the background. It was said that there was a composer who put together a musical interlude in honor of Tamika, and I felt like a douche for not liking it. At one point there's an entire quote chapter that's just straight music. Which adds to my discomfort in saying that this is a book. 

Overall, I found this educational, but it reminded me of the podcast Black Girl Gone. Kevin Hart and Charlemagne tha God helped produce this. It was narrated by Erica Alexander, these are very big names in Hollywood, so I just feel like the quality of the production doesn't match the people who are involved.