By Any Means Necessary
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- £7.49
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- £7.49
Publisher Description
Heart-wrenchingly honest, fans of Brandy Colbert and Nicola Yoon will anticipate this poignant reflection on what it means to choose yourself.
On the day Torrey moves and officially becomes a college freshman, he gets a call that might force him to drop out before he’s even made it through orientation: the bank is foreclosing on the bee farm his Uncle Miles left him.
Torrey’s worked hard to become the first member of his family to go to college, but while the neighborhood held him back emotionally, Uncle Miles encouraged him to reach his full potential. For years, it was just the two of them tending the farm. So Torrey can’t let someone erase his uncle’s legacy without a fight.
He tries balancing his old life in L.A. with his new classes, new friends, and (sort of) new boyfriend in San Francisco, but as the farm heads for auction, the pressure of juggling everything threatens to tear him apart. Can he make a choice between his family and his future without sacrificing a part of himself?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Torrey, a gay, black college freshman, is not sure where he belongs. He thinks he's escaping his Los Angeles neighborhood and his "sad excuse for a family" by going to San Francisco State University. As soon as he arrives there, though, troubling news from home pulls him back. The bee farm he inherited from his uncle is about to be seized due to unpaid taxes, and having the apiary fall into the wrong hands could add to the gentrification problems already threatening local residents' livelihoods. Torrey knows he should return to L.A. to work to save his property and neighborhood, but he wants to stay in school, especially after he reunites with a former love interest via Instagram. Through Torrey's struggles and vibrant, first-person voice, Montgomery (Home and Away) sheds light on larger social issues. At times directly addressing the reader, Torrey's narration clearly delineates concerns within nonwhite communities. Rather than providing pat answers to complicated problems, this contemporary coming-of-age novel raises essential questions to ponder. Ages 14 up.)
