Never a Dull Moment, a guest post by Desmond Hall

ONCE UPON A TIME I taught high school biology in a Brooklyn school district that had the highest crime rate in the country. Though high schoolers can be “tough crowds” when it comes to stirring up interest in a lesson plan about covalent bonding or mitosis, I had to put in some extra effort to make the concepts come alive and EXCITE my students at this school. And that understanding has helped me tremendously in my writing both my novels.  

I knew I wanted to convey insights into Jamaican life with YOUR CORNER DARK and now with BETTER MUST COME. So, when it came to showing YOUNG PEOPLE how economic policies, the issues of abandonment, police brutality, and others affected the island nation, I had to make the stories EXCITING!

As the great writer Jason Reynolds said, “…Even though I’m a writer, I hate reading boring books too. Here’s what I plan to do: NOT WRITE BORING BOOKS. That’s it, and that’s all.”

 So, let me tell you a little bit about BETTER MUST COME!

It’s an evocative, ACTION-PACKED YA thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate.

Deja is a “Barrel Girl” – one of the Jamaican kids who gets barrels (containers filled with clothes, food and other goods not available on island) from parents who’ve left them to go to the US and Canada to make more money because of the JOB SITUATION in Jamaica. Gabriel is caught up in a gang and desperate for a way out. When he meets Deja at a party, he starts looking for a way into her life, and starts wondering if they could be part of each other’s futures.

Then one day, while out fishing, Deja spies a go-fast boat stalled out by some rocks and smeared with blood. On board, a badly wounded man thrusts a bag at her, begging her to deliver it to someone halfway across the island, and not to say a word. She binds his wounds, determined to send help, and make good on her promise…not realizing the bag is stuffed with half a million US dollars. Not realizing that the posse Gabriel is in WILL STOP AT NOTHING to get the bag. Or that Gabriel’s and her lives will intersect in a way they never could have imagined as they’re forced to make SPLIT-SECOND DECISIONS to save the lives of the ones they love.

The story is told from two points of view with four major plot lines and over twenty set ups and payoffs that explode like FIREWORKS on the page. In addition, I use a great deal of DRAMATIC IRONY, the literary device often used in movies, plays, novels, and TV shows where the writer puts the readers ahead of the characters in the story. This way the readers know what’s happening before the characters do. This makes them feel a sense of DREAD, and EXCITEMENT over what they know is going to happen in the story.

So, you can see that my desire is to have the young folks TURN OVER PAGES AND THOUGHTS as quickly as they can, but at the same time pick up on the important insights layered into the story. This worked with covalent bonding and hopefully it does with BETTER MUST COME.

Another part of my teaching odyssey took me to a different school district where I taught English to high school sophomores and juniors. There, I learned a great deal about SYMBOLISM from a veteran teacher who helped me understand the techniques that the great American playwright, Tennessee Williams employed in his play A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE.

This learning also helped me in the writing of BETTER MUST COME. During one of the rewrites, I realized that BETTER MUST COME is a loose retelling of Homer’s ODYSSEY. Like Odysseus, the Greek warrior, who had to use his wits and courage to find his way home after the Trojan wars, my protagonist, Deja must also use her own wit, and courage to battle her way back home. They are both warriors of different kinds navigating different times—one ancient, one modern

Also, the theme of ABANDONMENT plays a large role in BETTER MUST COME. In the Odyssey, Odysseus abandons his family to go fight in the wars, whereas Deja is abandoned by her mother who leaves to earn money in the “first world”, and then Deja in turn abandons her siblings to go on an ODYSSEY in order to save her family. The big difference is that BETTER MUST COME is more of a diasporic adventure.

And, the readers can find “EASTER EGGS” throughout the book, as there are characters from the Odyssey that are reimagined in BETTER MUST COME (The cyclops, the witch, the cow, the 3 sirens, etc) If I were still a teacher, I’d actually make it an assignment to read both the ODYSSEY and BETTER MUST COME in order to compare and contrast.

Hopefully, the students wouldn’t use Chat GPT, tho.

Meet the author

Desmond Hall was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and moved to Jamaica, Queens. He’s the author of YOUR CORNER DARK, a YA novel that was one of Bank Street’s Best YA novels of 2022, a finalist for the New England Book Award, A Nominee for the Yalsa audio book award, Essence Magazine’s 19 Children’s book list, and included on several MUST READ lists including Buzzfeed and WBUR.

His new book, BETTER MUST COME, will be released in June. Barely Missing Everything meets American Street in this fiercely evocative, action-packed young adult thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangles the lives of two teens who want to change their fate.

He’s worked as both a high school biology teacher and English teacher, counseled at-risk teens from Riker’s Island prison, and served as Spike Lee’s creative director in the advertising business. He’s also written and directed the HBO movie, A DAY IN BLACK AND WHITE, which was nominated for the Gordon Parks Award. He’s written and directed the theater play, STOCKHOLM, BROOKLYN, which won the audience award at the Downtown Theater Festival at the Cherry Lane Theater. He’s also served on the board of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, and was a judge for the Addys, and the Downtown Urban Arts Film Festival. Named one of Variety Magazine’s 50 Creatives to watch. Also, he’s a graduate of Grubstreet’s Novel Incubator, an MFA level year-long intensive.

Instagram: @desmondhallauthor

X: @authordesmond

Tiktok.com/bettermustcome07

About Better Must Come

Barely Missing Everything meets American Street in this fiercely evocative, action-packed young adult thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate.

Deja is a “barrel girl”—one of the Jamaican kids who get barrels full of clothes, food, and treats shipped to them from parents who have moved to the US or Canada to make more money. Gabriel is caught up in a gang and desperate for a way out. When he meets Deja at a party, he starts looking for a way into her life and wonders if they could be a part of each other’s futures.

Then, one day while out fishing, Deja spies a go-fast boat stalled out by some rocks, smeared with blood. Inside, a badly wounded man thrusts a knapsack at her, begging her to deliver it to his original destination, and to not say a word. She binds his wounds, determined to send for help and make good on her promise…not realizing that the bag is stuffed with $500,000 American. Not realizing that the posse Gabriel is in will stop at nothing to get their hands on this bag—or that Gabriel’s and her lives will intersect in ways neither ever imagined, as they both are forced to make split-second choices to keep the ones they love most alive.

ISBN-13: 9781534460744
Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Publication date: 06/04/2024
Age Range: 14 – 18 Years

Filed under: Guest Post