Sixteen-year-old Jayson Porter wants to believe things will get better. But the harsh realities of his life never seem to change. Living in the inland-Florida projects with his abusive mother, he tries unsuccessfully to fit in at his predominately white school, while struggling to maintain even a thread of a relationship with his drug-addicted father. As the pressure mounts, there’s only one thing Jayson feels he has control over—the choice of whether to live or die.

In this powerful, gripping novel, Coretta Scott King Award–winning author Jaime Adoff explores the harsh reality of a teenager’s life, giving hope even in the bleakest of hours.