Dead end kids

the long version

Mark Fleisher exposes the depravity and humanity in gang life as seen through the eyes of a teen-aged girl named Cara. Dead End Kids provides a firsthand account of Cara's life as a member of a Kansas City gang, the Fremont Hustlers. Drugs and guns, shootings and assaults, boyfriends and pregnancies, ratty apartments, broken-down cars, minimum-wage jobs, strained relationships with family and peers, dodging the police, and praying for peace fill her days. The book describes in detail the social and economic pressure on Cara and fellow gang members whose lives were shaped by poverty, family disorganization, and parental neglect. Fleisher looks for hope in Cara's life, tries to bring her a brighter future, and ultimately fails. Dead End Kids will break your heart.