Promise Boys cover art

Promise Boys

A Blockbuster YA Mystery Thriller

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Promise Boys

By: Nick Brooks
Narrated by: Alfred Vines, Anthony Lopez, Brad Sanders, Christopher Hampton, Eliana Marianes, Hannah Church, Henriette Zoutomou, Jaime Lincoln Smith, Maria Liatis, Renier Cortes, Suehyla El-Attar, Xenia Willacey
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About this listen

Nick Brooks's Promise Boys is a trailblazing, blockbuster YA mystery about three teen boys of colour who must investigate their principal’s murder to clear their own names. For fans of Angie Thomas, Jason Reynolds, and Karen McManus.

The Urban Promise Prep School vows to turn boys into men. As students, J.B., Ramón, and Trey are forced to follow the prestigious "program's" strict rules. Extreme discipline, they’ve been told, is what it takes to be college bound, to avoid the fates of many men in their neighborhoods. This, the Principal Moore Method, supposedly saves lives.

But when Moore ends up murdered and the cops come sniffing around, the trio emerges as the case's prime suspects. With all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. But is the true culprit hiding among them?

This gripping thriller shines a glaring light on how the system too often condemns Black and Latinx teen boys to failure before they’ve even had a chance at success.

'Thrilling . . . Promise Boys will stay with you long after the last page' – Karen M. McManus, author of One of Us Is Lying

 Difficult Situations Literature & Fiction Racism & Discrimination Discrimination

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Critic reviews

Thrilling, captivating, and blade-sharp. Promise Boys will stay with you long after the last page. (Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying)
The path to manhood has never felt more ominous than it does in Promise Boys. I was at the edge of my seat trying to figure out if I was reading a story about boys becoming men or boys becoming killers—you will be too. A brilliant pulls-no-punches mystery with bruised hearts at its core. (Adam Silvera, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of They Both Die at the End)
There's nothing like a book that manages to flawlessly thread subtle social commentary through a propulsive plot carried by complex characters. Promise Boys does that ten times over, and I can't wait to see this expertly crafted mystery take the world over... while teaching us a thing or two about what it means to be a boy of color in 21st century America. (Nic Stone, New York Times-bestselling author of Dear Martin)
"Nothing short of astounding. Promise Boys is a spellbinding, propulsive mystery while simultaneously presenting a searing critique of structural injustice, viewed through the eyes of the young men who live with it. I recommend it to anyone who loves books or doesn’t," (Jeff Zentner, award-winning author of The Serpent King and In the Wild Light)
Promise Boys is an edge-of-your-seats, street-smart, exploding-with-talent novel. Three young men fight to overcome the way the world looks at them and become each other’s hope in the process. (Francisco X. Stork, author of On the Hook)
Editor's Choice - Both an astonishingly tense thriller as well as a critique of the charter school system
If there is a book to fall in love with next year I promise you that it's Promise Boys by Nick Brooks. A YA Thriller, three Black and Brown boys as the protagonists, a page-turner and the voice of every character is brilliant. (Abiola Bello)
This smart, tense thriller takes a sharp look at how American society treats boys of colour. (Fiona Noble)
An explosive YA novel that finds three students at a super strict prep school being investigated for the murder of the institution's principal.
All stars
Most relevant
I loved this audiobook it was so realistic and refreshing and I had so much fun listening to it that you felt like you was there with every body trying to solve this case with them loved how intense and the cast made the characters feel so real

It was like you was there with these boys

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