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by Nick Brooks
Perfect for fans of Karen McManus and The Hate U Give, this edge-of-your-seat thriller from the author of Promise Boys follows a girl determined to clear her brother's name and a boy desperate to keep his own out of the line of fire. As the heat turns up in a murder investigation, old feelings reignite between them, but a shocking secret could tear them apart.
Unmask a murderer or take the fall.
After Cooper King is pressured by big brother figure Jason to go on a looting spree during a local march, the unthinkable happens: gunshots ring in the air and someone ends up dead. After Cooper flees, the news shows four teens in ski masks near the scene of the murder―Cooper and his friends. Cooper fears the cops will come knocking at his door, and the pressure only mounts when a suspect is taken into custody: Jason.
Monique, Jason's sister and Cooper's longtime crush, is willing to go any length to clear her brother's name. Even if she needs to go into the belly of the beast and confront the killer herself. When she teams up with Cooper, they fall down the investigation rabbit hole and start to fall for each other. But little does Monique know that within this web of deception, Cooper is shrouding the truth that he was there when the shots went off. If the pair fail to uncover the real murderer, Jason will get locked up for a crime he didn't commit―and drag down Cooper with him.
"Brooks deftly explores the everyday growing pains of Black boyhood and girlhood alongside the threats of racial injustice and police violence faced by youths, often drawing parallels to real activists and movements. A thrilling, heart-racing mystery with a page-turning budding romance at its center." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[An] intense thriller [with] classic murder mystery elements [and] issues surrounding racism, police brutality, and corruption." —Publishers Weekly
"A dynamic and heart-pounding thriller about systemic injustice, Up In Smoke has the highest of stakes and a tender love story at its core. Nick Brooks is a force." ―Jessica Goodman, New York Times bestselling author of The Meadowbrook Murders and The Legacies
"A tense contemporary whodunit that will get you thinking and keep you guessing." ―Lamar Giles, author of Ruin Road
"A nostalgic love story, intertwined in a fast-paced mystery that captures the gut-wrenching fears and emotional conflicts Black teenagers are forced to overcome in today's America." ―Jumata Emill, author of The Black Queen and Wander in the Dark
This information about Up in Smoke was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Nick Brooks is the critically-acclaimed author of Promise Boys and award-winning filmmaker from Washington, DC. He is a 2020 graduate of USC's TV and Film Production program. His short film, Hoop Dreamin', earned him the George Lucas Scholar Award and was a finalist in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Film Fest. Before becoming a filmmaker, Nick was an educator working with at-risk youth, and many of his stories are inspired by his experiences with the children and families of his community. He is also the author of the middle-grade series, Nothing Interesting Ever Happens to Ethan Fairmont.
The Original Daughter
by Jemimah Wei
A dazzling debut by Jemimah Wei about ambition, sisterhood, and family bonds in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.
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A morbidly funny and emotionally resonant novel about the ways life—and love—can sneak up on us (no matter how much pepper spray we carry).
Ginseng Roots
by Craig Thompson
A new graphic memoir from the author of Blankets and Habibi about class, childhood labor, and Wisconsin’s ginseng industry.
Awake in the Floating City
by Susanna Kwan
A debut novel about an artist and a 130-year-old woman bound by love and memory in a future, flooded San Francisco.
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