Better Must Come

By: Desmond Hall

Narrated by: Jaime Lincoln Smith

Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Barely Missing Everything meets American Street in this fiercely evocative, action-packed young adult thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate.

Deja is a “barrel girl”—one of the Jamaican kids who get barrels full of clothes, food, and treats shipped to them from parents who have moved to the US or Canada to make more money. Gabriel is caught up in a gang and desperate for a way out. When he meets Deja at a party, he starts looking for a way into her life and wonders if they could be a part of each other’s futures.

Then, one day while out fishing, Deja spies a go-fast boat stalled out by some rocks, smeared with blood. Inside, a badly wounded man thrusts a knapsack at her, begging her to deliver it to his original destination, and to not say a word. She binds his wounds, determined to send for help and make good on her promise…not realizing that the bag is stuffed with $500,000 American. Not realizing that the posse Gabriel is in will stop at nothing to get their hands on this bag—or that Gabriel’s and her lives will intersect in ways neither ever imagined, as they both are forced to make split-second choices to keep the ones they love most alive.

©2024 Desmond Hall (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Loved it, binged it - and yes better must come!

This story swept me away. I binged it in one day on a long haul flight. I will try not to give too many spoilers but it was moving on so many levels. Youthful love, plot, psychology of abandonment and social criticism all weaved together in a sort of new kind of odyssey where a barrel girl, Deja, and an orphan, Gabriel, teenagers left behind to grow up quick in Jamaica, takes destiny into their own hands on mad dash through tough choices and many curveballs. A rough reality is portrayed but yet one feels the love for Jamaican culture language and people throughout - the hope clearly is that better must come not just for our main characters but for Jamaica. I also really like the reading performance- almost in all parts - beautiful paced and engaging- though I would have like a few of the Deja parts read slightly less pitched. But still wonderful.