2 Books Published by Blue Works on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Thirteen-year-old Jarett Ross has been no more than a ghost for months, crying alone in the darkness where no one can hear him. A drug-dealer put the moves on his mom, got her addicted to heroin, and now rules their small apartment in a rotting Victorian house. Jarett’s only refuge from the man’s brutality has been his tiny room, its door locked by a skeleton key. Then, late one rainy night, even that protection fails him. After a nightmare of cause-and-effect, Jarett is battered, near death, and running from the police. He finds himself at the iron gates of an ancient graveyard where he waits to die, to be delivered from this world without hope. That’s when Robbie, a homeless boy who lives in a crypt, arrives. Hounded by the police that have never helped him, but driven by his desire to save his mother, Jarett is exhausted by life. Robbie encourages him to try to build a future from the bones of his past. But wouldn’t it be easier to just stay in this peaceful place of the dead forever?

Searing. Honest. Raw. Oakland, California. The ’hood is divided by invisible lines, but only those in the know can see them. The Friends and the Crew, two rival gangs, form an uneasy truce against Deek and his drugs, his Uzis and his Trans Am. Sixteen-year-old Ty is Deek’s bodyguard, but hates Deek and what he represents. All Ty wants is to keep his kid brother safe and provide for his mom, but Deek is pushing him way past cool. As Deek expands his territory by breaking the Rules, Ty’s brother, Danny, forges an alliance of his own with Lyon—a Friend and magic-boy. When Deek’s double-dealing threatens not just the Friends but Danny’s life as well, the smoldering tensions explode into a violent confrontation forcing Ty to face his own fears in order to claim his power—and decide what kind of a man he is destined to become.