YOUNG BLOOD

A South African teen finds himself caught up in increasingly risky crimes and bad decisions.

Seventeen-year-old Sipho’s income mostly comes from his work as a backyard mechanic. He and his family live in Umlazi, a township near Durban, South Africa, where there aren’t many opportunities for them to thrive economically. Disillusioned with school and taken by the extravagant lifestyle of his old friend Musa, Sipho falls in with a violent crime syndicate. Starting with smaller crimes like drug use and theft, Sipho’s actions intensify as he falls further in lust with the lavish rewards that crime gets him. Of course, such bad judgment calls come with increasingly dangerous risks, and the window for Sipho to choose a different path in life closes further with every escalating act. The fetishization of wealth, from upscale cars to access to expensive drugs, is portrayed deftly, illuminating Sipho’s choices as being mired in peer pressure and capitalist messaging. Sipho himself is the most rounded of the characters, though he still feels distant as more time is spent detailing the types of cars he drives (and steals) than his internal processing of events and their consequences. This leaves the ending and any character growth feeling unearned. Both Sipho and the novel treat the girls around him as little more than bodies to comment upon or pursue sexually. Main characters are Black.

Blunt, brisk, and fast-paced and with little introspection.