“Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self,” written by 26-year- old Columbia University graduate, is a medley of short stories bound together by a common motif- struggle and despair. The collection tells the stories of African American teenagers and young adults whose endeavors cause them to brush up against life’s many obstacles.  It calls attention to the aches and pains of young lust and the unbearable wrath of social inequalities keeping minorities in shackles.

Through reading the anthology, the reader obtains a new perception of adolescence and incisively watches each character come to grips with acceptance of themselves and others. “Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self” confronts modern prejudices by allowing the reader to experience each characters insanities and to see that race does not define a person.

“I think a lot of minority characters in fiction get the treatment that– their ‘blackness’ or ‘ethnicness’ is the first and only thing about them. So, I wanted the characters I was writing to feel like fully rounded individuals, who were dealing with race in specific and human ways, and also dealing with issues in life that didn’t revolve around their racial identities,” said Evans in an interview by book reviewer, Dolen Perkins Vasquez.

The terrain that Evans uncovers in his primary short story, “Virgins” is one previously concealed by society. In this account, an underage girl who leads a seemingly normal life in the Bronx, challenges her own morals and values and decides to go clubbing. Her impulsive decisions leave her in a difficult situation –the choice between friendship and lust. However, right as the reader feels it is the end of the road, an unexpected twist occurs leaving the reader wanting more. It’s raw and desolate-precisely mimicking the coarse lives of teens affected by social pressures, and doesn’t end in an embellished way.

In the second story featured, “Snakes”, a young African American adult revisits a difficult time in her childhood. Through her reminiscing, she discovers details for which she never took account to. A simple summer spent at her white grandmother’s house takes a turn for the worst leaving her to face the severe effects of racism.

This collection confronts the trials of adolescence, social prejudices, and friendships. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self is a collection which does and will continue to inspire and harvest thought-its remarkably eye-opening.