Tight, a young-adult novel by Torrey Maldonado, follows the adventures and misadventures of its African American protagonist, Bryan, through the challenges and temptations of sixth grade in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood. Maldonado, an educator who has taught in Brooklyn for over two decades, draws on personal experiences as well as those of his students in this bittersweet account of friendship, peer pressure, thrill-seeking, and comic book fandom. Narrated by its preteen hero, Tight employs New York slang and a fast pace to replicate the urban rhythms of its Brooklyn setting, while touching on issues of morality, trust, family bonds, and the thrills and hazards of big-city life. Tight (2018) is a recipient of the Christopher Award and has been named a Washington Post Best Children’s Book of the Year and an NPR Best Book of the Year.

This guide refers to the 2018 Puffin Books paperback edition.

Plot Summary

Bryan, an African American sixth-grader who lives in an impoverished neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, has felt lonely for some time. He has an older sister named Ava, but no brothers. His father, who for years has been in and out of jail due to his violent temper, pays little attention to either him or his sister. Bryan longs for male friends, but his mother, who is a social worker, discourages him from building friendships because she is concerned that he will be led astray, just like his father was. Despite and because of this, Bryan’s best friend is his mother, with whom he shares a love of “chilling”: savoring an hour or two of peace and relaxation in a quiet place, far from the “drama” of the projects where they live.

One day, his mother invites a boy named Mike to dinner. Mike is a year older than Bryan and seems smart, funny, and good-natured. Both of Bryan’s parents believe him to be a “good kid” because he is courteous and gets good grades, and they hope he will be a good influence on Bryan. Bryan’s mother tells him that, now that he is in sixth grade, he needs “good friends,” and at first, Mike seems an ideal friend; he is amicable and generous and shares Bryan’s love of superhero comics. However, once away from the adults, Mike shows another side of himself. Bryan learns that Mike forges his mother’s handwriting on notes in order to skip school and indulges in other high-risk behaviors, such as hopping the turnstile into the subway and riding on the outside of trains (“train surfing”). Under peer pressure from Mike, Bryan soon does all of these things, too. Mike tells him that the only reason he works hard in school is so that he can indulge his wild (and often illegal) behavior without being suspected. For example, he lures Bryan into skipping class, hopping the turnstiles at the subway, and even “train-surfing”—holding onto the back of a moving train as it speeds down the tracks. Bryan finds this new streak of rule-breaking to be at once exciting and troubling because these reckless actions threaten his good relationship with his mother and force him to engage in behavior that does not reflect his true values or identity. However, Bryan finds himself drawn into Mike’s world partly because his father has been arrested again for assault, and he longs for a visceral distraction from his stressful and anxiety-ridden thoughts.

Mike also shows signs of an abusive, controlling personality; for example, he resents it when Bryan beats him in a video game and frequently insults him for no reason. He also shows anger when Bryan tries to befriend other people, such as Big Will, a good-natured boy of Bryan’s age who seems genuinely friendly, level-headed, and studious. Nevertheless, Bryan hesitates to share his concerns about Mike with his mother because she chose Mike to be his friend, and he does not want to hurt her. He also wonders whether Mike’s domineering manner and their joint misconduct only trouble him because he is “soft.”

Bryan’s father gets out of jail, and one day, Bryan’s parents receive a letter from school about their son’s many absences. His mother cries at Bryan’s deception, while simultaneously restraining his father, who threatens to “smack” Bryan. Bryan confesses to cutting school with Mike, but not to what they did at the subway. He feels guilty for betraying his mother—who is his best friend—for the sake of someone like Mike, who cares nothing for him. Bryan’s mother tells him to stay away from Mike for a while, so he obeys her and continues to bond with Big Will over their shared love of comic books, arcade games, and superhero TV shows. He finds that although Big Will has an imposing physique, he also has a respectful, calming demeanor that allows him to deescalate conflict without resorting to violence.

One day, Mike and two of his friends try to pick a fight with Bryan, who responds with ready anger, but Big Will wraps his arms around Bryan and carries him away until he has calmed down. Bryan realizes that Big Will is a much better friend than Mike and is pleased that his mother seems to like him, too. Finally, to get himself back into the family’s good graces, Mike comes to Bryan’s mother’s office and apologizes to Bryan. However, this reformation does not last long. His abusive, jealous behavior soon returns worse than ever before, and he eventually goads Bryan into fighting him. Although Bryan is a year younger and has never been in a fight before, he overpowers Mike, shouting, “I’m Luke Cage!” (165) Bryan’s sister Ava bursts into the room and pulls him off the sobbing boy, smacking him to get him to stop. Mike runs from the apartment, shouting threats that Bryan will catch a “beat-down,” and Ava scolds Bryan that he has just made things worse. She tells him that Mike’s friends may get involved now, as well as Bryan’s father, who could end up in jail again. She runs after Mike to make peace with him and gets him to promise to talk things out with Bryan.

When his mother comes home from work, Bryan tells her about Mike’s two-faced and bullying behavior and how the fight started. (He still neglects to confess his and Bryan’s crimes on the subway, however.) After hearing what Bryan has to say, his mother tells him that, in a way, he was the “bad guy” as well, since he chose to ignore his doubts about Mike and to go along with his friend’s misdeeds, and finally “explode” at him instead of trying to talk about the problem at hand. She says that violence rarely makes things better, citing Bryan’s father and his numerous jail sentences as evidence. Bryan sees the truth in this and tells himself that in the future he will use his brains (like Batman or Black Panther, who always “think ten steps ahead”) rather than his fists, like the violent Luke Cage. (177)