BETTER MUST COME

Two Jamaican teens cross paths at low points in their lives, but an immediate connection and a lot of luck help them escape dangerous circumstances.

When Deja’s dad abandoned his family to work in Costa Rica, her mother was forced to do the same. She went to New York, leaving Deja, who’s skilled with boats and fishing, to care for her two younger siblings alone. Despite not fully committing to their acts of violence and criminality, Gabriel gets caught up in a posse, or gang, right out of the orphanage. Both have financial struggles and harbor pent-up resentments without having many healthy outlets, but they have a meet-cute on the fringes of a bashment, a party in their neighborhood. This romantic and hopeful encounter gives the teens an opportunity to open up about their struggles. The nonlinear dual narration reveals how smitten both young people are and moves the story along swiftly toward Deja’s pivotal discovery of a dead DEA agent and a briefcase full of money, while Gabriel navigates the likelihood of betrayal and death as he struggles to find a way out of the posse. These storylines intertwine with the unwieldy and convoluted involvement of law enforcement agents, but ultimately the two kindred spirits cut through the confusion and arrive at a neat resolution.

Criminal intrigue and the unique vulnerabilities of Caribbean youth make for high-stakes hijinks with a lot of heart.