Young Junius

On the surface, Young Junius seems like a fairly simple story - 14-year-old Junius Ponds has his brother die, and vows revenge against the drug dealer that murdered him. It's a dark, abrasive coming of age story that is almost like a YA version of Scarface.

At the same time, though, Harwood uses that story to make a larger point about the karmic circle of violence - or, rather, the downward spiral of violence, rather than a circle. Junius' brother Temple is killed, which spurs Junius to action. The acts of violence that Junius commits spur others to violence of their own, and at the end of the story, what do we get? A bunch of dead people and an apartment building being torn down from the inside. It's not just Junius, either - we see the same thing being perpetuated with Rock, Marlene, and C-Dub.

Harwood has a very cinematic style to his writing here, much as in his Jack novels. There's still a Tarantino element, but it feels like he watched some John Singleton movies as well when preparing for this. That's not a criticism, but I feel it does provide a good description of the style he uses here.