Darker Than Me

Darker than me is the first book in the Pipelined series of novels, written by Tu Tunics, a story for those that are rarely written about. Based in a poor suburb of St. Louis, the story centers around Clay Lands, an athletic, mouthy, and mischievous twelve-year-old and the youngest of five brothers whose lives have been shaped by the untimely passing of their beloved grandmother along with living in the aftermath of a neighborhood torn apart by a controversial police shooting.

While adjusting to life with his oldest brother as his guardian, Clay normally only runs the streets to play basketball and hang with his crew. But when an opportunity arises that allows him to make enough money to buy things that will earn him the respect he so desperately desires at middle school, he has difficult choices to make, and has to decide whether the life he thinks he wants is truly worth everything it may cost.