While reading Mr. Mercedes and coming upon Jerome's 'jive talk', there were a few times where I cringed. I felt it was too over the top. IMHO it was not something that a black teenager would be saying, even if it is to an older mentor/friend who was 'of that era'. I didn't like it when it showed up in Finders Keepers either. It was jarring to me, and as someone else posted, it took me out of the story. I am a middle-aged gay white male, and in my teens I had a black girlfriend (I was exploring ) and never once did I hear her or any of our black friends speak this way and that was back in the 70's. We had our way of saying things back then, but it was never anything like the 'Jerome speak'.