Abstract
There are many stories about either making it out of the hood in America or getting trapped by it. The stories tend to end when characters get that sports contract or college acceptance letter, or when the prison or casket door slams shut. But what happens after? The Hype is a novel-in-progress about just that. Its three central characters, Javi, Gio and Anais are twenty-something Nuyoricans in contemporary New York City. They came of age in the Bronx and escaped a hierarchy of traumas dealt to them in their youth. As young adults, two with Ivy League degrees and one with a felony record, they find themselves with set visions of how life was supposed to look, but frustrated that it looks quite different. After Gio, an artist, becomes noteworthy as a result of a scuffle with a YouTube celebrity, Javi and Anais join him in a creative venture that draws the three characters together. In a narrative that touches on social media addiction, incarceration and Latinx identity, The Hype takes its characters on a journey that challenges their set visions in life and teaches them to embrace the inherent uncertainty in the future.