Finally read Alite's book: Gotti's Rules. Here's my review:

I liked this book because it has new facts and stories about the NY mob. I didn't like it because it was hard to follow and there were gaps in the story.

It's always interesting to read mob books that aren't about a boss or major figure. The associates are more involved in the business or nuts and bolts of the mafia. I like learning about the different associates, the power structures, etc... This book had some of those stories, and that's mainly what I liked about it.

But there were problems in the way the story was told. Most mob books like this are told in order from start to finish, but this one left out portions and skipped around. For instance, Alite was Albanian? How did that influence his life? What was his childhood like? This was left out. What exact things led up to Alite and Junior Gotti having a falling out? This was unclear. I often was confused about where I was in the timeline and how we got there.

And finally, the main problem most people will have with this book is Alite is lying or the book is one-sided. I don't care if he was lying. Give a life-long criminal the opportunity to tell his story and there's probably going to be a lot of lying. But this is where the author is supposed to balance it out with opinions from other people, facts, etc... For instance, Alite says that although he was having problems with the Gottis when he moved to Jersey and/or Florida, he wasn't "chased out of Queens." I feel like the author just took his word for it.

Also, throughout the book the author says several times something like "Junior Gotti doesn't admit he did anything wrong, but Alite admits everything he ever did." Ok, point taken. But throughout the book, Alite paints himself as the "cool" criminal, and Junior and his father as moronic criminals. So it is one-sided in that way. Alite admits he did a lot of crimes and towards the end, admits he has anger issues and is seeing a therapist. It would've been interesting to learn more about Alite's problems: Why was he so violent and crazy? What happened? Is this why his childhood was basically left out of the story?