"Rollins, a Negro, has written what must be the first "Negro in New England problem novel." His Negro population of Roxbury, Massachusetts is drawn with great skill and verismilitude even though his whites are mainly two-dimensional. Apparently Roxbury is just as bitter a place for a black boy to grow up as Harlem -- the same switchblades, razors, killer gangs, rumbles, violent deaths. The main character is sixteen year old Martin who falls in love with a white girl who is being groomed for her debut. Eventually the affair becomes known to her father and he in turn wounds Martin so viciously that the lad has to be castrated. Martin then plans his revenge and the climax explodes with a double murder and a suicide. Whereas the violence may seem gratuitous, certainly to some readers, the Negro argot is frank and convincing and Martin's two sisters come off very well."--Kirkus