Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The Drop Off : A book by Jason E. Hodges




In this adrenalin driven novella, Mayva tries desperately to make her way in the ever changing landscape of adulthood. A hard enough task for many of today’s youth facing challenges like drugs, sexuality, college tuition, grades, self-harm, depression, and leaving home for the first time. But being from the low rent side of town, it becomes an extremely difficult task to undertake. Growing up on the north side of Jacksonville, Mayva learned to survive in a place where homeless sleep on park benches, gangs control city blocks, and cops play cat and mouse through the night with johns, hookers, and drug dealers. Mayva finds comfort in poetry, self discovery in the pages of her diary, courage from skateboarding, and hope in the subculture that became her family when hers fell apart. This family of friends support her unconditionally when the frustrations of living with alcoholic parents and their abuse became too much. Mayva has her sights set on winning the annual summer skate jam and using the prize money to get out of the north side and into college. But when her world starts to spin helplessly out of control, it’s more than she can do just to stay afloat and keep her sanity.

The Drop Off is an immediately engaging, a refreshingly vibrant story of hope and love, with triumph in the face of darkness and hardship. Jason E. Hodges shines a spotlight on the world of skateboarding and subcultures and is thoughtful and compelling in his characterization. The writing is compassionate and insightful, the characters fascinating and entertaining and the storyline original. Lisa de Nikolits author of The Witchdoctor's Bones, The Hungry Mirror, West of Wawa, and A Glittering Chaos