Some people dream of happily ever after, but all 17-year-old Josh Roberts wants is a roof over his head and for his little brother to be safe.

Josh’s father has gone missing without a trace. Now Josh and his 9-year-old brother, Twig, are stuck living with Gran in her trailer. Problem is, Gran didn’t ask to take care of any kids, and she’s threatening to call Social Services unless Josh can find his dad. After paying off Gran to take in his little brother, Josh risks truancy and getting kicked off his basketball team to take to the streets and hunt for his dad. But when Josh digs too deep, he suddenly finds himself tethered to a criminal scrapping ring to which his father was accomplice. If Josh wants to keep Twig out of the system and return to some sense of normal, he’ll have to track his dad down and demand honest answers.

This book is incredibly well-written. The plot was great. The genre was very odd for a young-adult book, but the author made it work really well.

I commend the realism of the dialogue. It has an accurate way of depicting each character’s well-being. It does not use too many metaphors or figures of speech (though there is a lot of foul language); it’s pretty much normal conversation. (Not like some books where a normal guy suddenly speaks like a poet or uses deep analogies that surprise.)

The story is dark and gloomy, presenting lots of societal issues, but the sequence of events is well constructed and characters are well introduced and developed.

The only downside for me, I guess, was the ending. It was too soft after intense emotion throughout the story. Or I maybe I just expected something more compelling and intriguing to conclude a great piece of art.

But overall, I really enjoyed reading the book; it is a masterpiece I would very much recommend to anyone.

• Kevin Velayo