Last Year's Boy

By I. L. Smith-Garcia

Eighteen-year-old Vincent drifts aimlessly through post-high school life when the opioid crisis hits. Friends vanish, overdosing. His older brother Jimmy-always the life of the party-has begun shooting heroin. With little more than hope and an acceptance letter to his dream school, Vincent runs to Los Angeles searching for an escape.

But distance proves illusory. In the sun-bleached sprawl of L.A., old ghosts resurface. Jimmy's spiral deepens. And when a childhood friend is murdered in their family home, Vincent is forced back to the place he swore he'd never return-to face what's broken, and what might still be saved.

Last Year's Boy is a spare, haunting meditation on memory, survival, and the ache of unrequited love. With raw, lyrical intensity, I. L. Smith-Garcia captures the dislocation of coming-of-age in the shadow of crisis-and the quiet, stubborn hope that healing might be possible, even if it comes too late.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FHWNJ4QS
• ISBN13: 9798291711118
• Release Date: July 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"