What Power did great was blending the gritty street life with a glamorous upper-scale aesthetic. This was made clear with Jamie “Ghost” St. Patrick’s double lifestyle as a drug kingpin and a successful nightclub entrepreneur. For that reason, the books on this list will match either one or both of these themes. They’ll either be super gritty, ghetto fabulous, or both.

Books Like The Power TV Series

The Cartel by Ashley & Jaquavis | Buy on Amazon US | Buy on Amazon UK

The Cartel was one of the first urban crime books I read back in the day, and this was way before Power was created. The book follows the life of Miami kingpin Carter Diamond and his family. But after a major piece of the puzzle is lost, the family is weakened. This is the moment when Carter Diamond’s illegitimate son (Carter Jones) shows up to continue the legacy of the Diamond family. The family dynamic in this book is similar to the family aspect seen in Power. The book also features a female assassin named Miamor, who steals the heart of Carter Jones, while threatening his life at the same time.

The Cartel is a juicy book with many attributes seen in Power, such as the suspenseful on-the-edge lifestyle, the sexiness and the lavish life.

The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah | Buy on Amazon US | Buy on Amazon UK

We bet many of you have heard of this one. The Coldest Winter Ever is one of the urban classics, and Sister Souljah has uplifted black women and men globally with her work. The book follows the life of a kingpin’s daughter, Winter Santiaga. Conditioned by her life in Brooklyn, Winter cares only about wearing the latest high-end fashions, turning heads at expensive night clubs and trying to catch the attention of her father’s second in command, Midnight.

But Midnight is more intelligent than Winter gives him credit for, which is why he’s the only one able to escape the law when they bust her father’s entire organization and pin a Rico case on them. With all of her father’s fund seized, Winter, her mother and her little sisters are thrown out onto the streets. And now, Winter must downsize her tastes as she fights to survive while becoming homeless. The Coldest Winter Ever is all about the cold consequences of “living the life”, which is something we get to see in Power season 4 when Ghost is incarcerated and his family must survive on their own.

Gully by Latris Oliveira & Gary Swaby | Buy on Amazon US | Buy on Amazon UK

Gully follows the life of Homilee, a young black female who grew up in unfortunate circumstances. Her father is in and out of prison, and her mother is an alcoholic who is not fit to look after Homilee and her special needs brother. After Homilee is subjected to something horrible in her family home, she decides to breakaway from her family and rely on her friends for survival. It’s here where she meets Jamal, the love of her life. But this leads her down a destructive path full of heartbreaking circumstances.

Along the way, Homilee figures out that the rap game is going through a renaissance (Gully is set in the late 90s), and she wants a piece of the action. She begins to shift her focus to the music business, and she soon learns that the music game is just as gully as the street life.

Gully is similar to Power because it follows a protagonist who wants to walk on the right path, but continuously gets led down the wrong one. It’s a book all about hustle and circumstance, and there are some incredibly suspenseful moments. Similarly to The Coldest Winter Ever, Gully is also set in New York City much like the Power TV series. And because a lot of the early parts of the book are set in Queens, New York during the 90s, Gully is extremely similar in tone to Raising Kanan.

From Pieces to Weight by 50 Cent | Buy on Amazon US | Buy on Amazon UK

Speaking of Raising Kanan, the show has many parallels to the life of the show’s executive, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Much of it is inspired by his own personal come up in Jamaica Queens, and that’s why it makes sense to read his first autobiography, From Pieces to Weight. This book is quite literally the foundations of Power. Despite Power being a fictional series, a lot of it is inspired by real life. If you read this book, you’ll see where 50 Cent got much of his inspiration for Power.

White Lines by Tracy Brown | Buy on Amazon US | Buy on Amazon UK

Jada left home at the age of 16, running from her own demons and the horrors of abuse inflicted by her mother’s boyfriend. She partied hard and life seemed good with Born, a neighborhood kingpin whose name was synonymous with money, power and respect. But his love couldn’t save her from a crack habit.

White Lines is about a girl being led astray, and falling into the trap of the underworld. Jada must become a survivor of the game, and find the strength to carry on living. With a lot of harsh realities, White Lines is one of the most memorable urban love stories ever. While Power shows you how people get rich from trafficking drugs, White Lines shows you the consequences of those drugs being so readily available.

Although it’s a work of fiction, Gully is a story based on real world experiences, so when you read Gully, you can feel the pain of the characters as they navigate through the many obstacles faced by growing up in disenfranchised communities.

The entire story of Gully will be told within a trilogy, but you can also read the first book as a standalone.

Gully features a slew of interesting characters who fit into the categories of:
– Rappers on the come up
– Street hustlers
– Shady music managers
– Glamorous Hip Hop moguls
– Revered drug kingpins
– Girls looking out for one another during hard times

Gully is a look into how harsh life was for young women trying to come up in the 90s, and the many struggles they faced. It deals with issues of abuse, murder and manipulation. Gully is a demonstration of how mislead youths try their hand at artistry to make it out of the unpleasant conditions they’ve been restricted to during their upbringing.

Hip Hop historians will be proud of how Gully allows the reader to take a walk back through the era of 90s Hip Hop. The book even includes a chapter dedicated to the iconic Tunnel nightclub that existed in Manhattan back in the late 1990s.

Gully will hook readers of books like The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah and On The Come Up by Angie Thomas. It even shares many similarities with the upcoming Power Book III: Raising Kanan, as Gully is set in the 90’s. It also showcases many challenges faced in the Hip Hop music industry during the 90’s, which was considered the Hip Hop renaissance.

Visit gullybook.com for more information on the book.