On the Hook tells the story of Hector, a chess-loving, nerdy, teenage middle child hoping to pull his family out of the El Paso projects and into a better life. He walks past gangs who prowl the streets, led by Chavo, whose younger brother Joey terrifies and terrorizes Hector and threatens Hector’s best friend, a girl named Azi. Even as Azi and Hector’s family pull him toward a promising future—chess club captain, college—Hector’s fear of letting down his deceased father and his older brother, not to mention his fear that Joey will harm Azi and himself—and that Chavo’s gang will harm his family, that they’ll never escape the hopelessness around him—pulls him into a state of nervous exhaustion and despair. Which will win, in the end?
The author pulls no punches. Violence threatens, and erupts. Hector is dogged by challenges both relatable and enormous, and their teeth sink in, drawing blood. He can’t escape this world unscathed, no matter how exceptional he is. He doesn’t respond to his challenges in predictable ways or with model behavior, and that feels refreshing and true and real.
This isn’t a book that teaches me lessons on how to behave, how to pull myself out of a tough situation with pluck and hard work. Lessons are in there—parents, don’t worry—and the book is ultimately a hopeful one, but it’s raw. It pulled me down into its dark world, and I felt the pain of being branded a coward when it’s true, the agony of knowing the good I ought to do and not doing it. The confusion when doing my duty may actually be the worst thing I could do. The sadness that even healed wounds leave scars, that no ending is the end.
Author Francisco X. Stork draws from his own past for a tale that’s emotionally raw, painful and personal. Boys who know that being a human is hard work, who don’t care much for rosy cheer-up toxic positivity, who want to be brave—boys like that will connect to this story.

- M.G.