The year is 1969 and Bowser is locked up inside The Hill, a juvenile detention facility. Bowser makes friends reluctantly with some of the other boys there: Evan, Babybird, Snicklesnort. However, it is a chance encounter with Nose, one of the Balck inmates, that changes Bowser most and puts him at odds with the white inmates and some of those who supervise the teens. Seldom have I encountered main characters with whom I have not a thing in common and little sympathy to boot. These are teens who almost set themselves up for failure and for rejection. And yet there is something about Bowser and Nose that connects, that makes me root for them to overcome the almost impossible odds stacked against them. Debut novelist Brown has crafted a story that twists and turns on itself. Backgrounds are revealed bit by tortured bit until readers come to understand why Bowser and Nose and the others behave the way they do. There are some adults so corrupt that one feels as if the deck is stacked way too unevenly. However, there is always hope of some sort, a thin light at times, that leads the boys to safety.