Jaw dropped. Mind boggled. That's how I felt after reading this book--especially when I realized it's Mottley's first novel--and that she was barely 18 when she wrote it. Loosely inspired by the true story of a police-trafficking ring in Oakland, CA, the story is a brutally honest examination of how the judicial system dissolves black families, leaving kids to grow up way too fast. But while there might not be a happy ending here, Mottley shows there's lots of love.