The talents of the writers, including Rita Garcia-Williams, Ellen Hopkins, A. Each story shows how the death of a young person impels a pause and often results in an affirmation to move forward with a more well-defined purpose. Two stories explore the ripple effect of Kev’s death on people who didn’t know him at all. Most poignant, perhaps, is the experience of the boy who remembers his initiation into the gang Kev formed, recalling the complicated embrace of masculinity he felt when Kev chose him to inflict the pain he later called on them all to bear. Other boys, and one girl, remember the “firsts” in their lives that were orchestrated by Kev: first drink, first sex, first theft and now, first funeral. A young boy with no ambition is coerced into working for his uncle at his funeral home jolted into something like self-awareness by the unwavering gaze of Kev’s sister, his life begins with Kev’s death. His unexpected suicide provides the occasion for this set of interconnected short stories by nine different authors that spin variations on the theme of initiation. Nineteen-year-old Kevin Nicholas was reckless, charismatic, and troubled.
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