Tyrell by Coe booth

This is edgy urban lit. This is way outside my experiences growing up and my language style.
Tyrell is a good kid, trying to do what his moms expects of him - support her and his little brother Troy now that his father is in prison again and the family is homeless. What he knows best are the illegal activities his father was involved in. He throws a big illegal party with the help of the same people that helped his father. The story revolves around the events leading up to the party and briefly the aftermath. Tyrell's moms is a very unreliable person, she leaves little boy Troy alone a lot to go off and have fun, she refuses to try and support the boys and herself. She refuses to do anything social services recommends. She was once in prison so the family cannot go to a good family homeless shelter, instead they are stuck in a run down hotel, a distance from the boys' school. Tyrell has no choice really but to drop out even though he had been an ok student. He works to keep Troy going.
Tyrell has two girls who are friends and important in his life. Novisha, who is excelling in school and has a career goal. She is the girl he loves and hopes to marry someday. Then there is Jasmine, also homeless, also stuck in the rundown hotel. Jasmine has her head on straight despite her own hardships and is a great listener, supporter. Tyrell's relationships with the girls is very genuine and makes this book. Not too many books with a guy audience have guy/girl relationships in them as a central part of the story. As in real life, there are no easy solutions here, the book doesn't try to provide them. There is no happy ending but there is hope...
This is a great book. It has an interesting story itself, to read how it came to be published check out www.coebooth.com and lets hope it isn't too long before the author publishes again!
jdw 8/15/07