Just 16 #786414

"A bitter internal monologue for a cruel world."
Just 16 is a fiercely raw, darkly comedic poetry collection that shatters the polite boundaries of contemporary literature to document the vicious circle of lost innocence, mundane routine, and systemic corruption. Rejecting all traditional literary pretence, Darren Hobson delivers a blunt-force stream of consciousness exploring the soul-crushing misery of modern survival—moving from the absolute dread of Monday commutes to the rapid, unforgiving erosion of youth marked by trauma and destructive relationships.
Do not expect safe, flowery ornamentation. In this uncompromising volume of unpolished free verse, ordinary domestic frustrations collapse without warning into visceral, cinematic horror and sudden catastrophe. Hobson brilliantly forces heavy dystopian paranoia, structural negligence, and folklore-driven ghosts to collide with the laugh-out-loud absurdities of modern lowbrow reality—where demonic decay smashes directly into cheap cider, stale pizza, and alarm clocks.
Driven by a propulsive, conversational spoken-word cadence that anchors abstract emotional pain in tactile, unromanticised physical sensations, Just 16 embraces unresolved grief as the truest reflection of human experience. This is a visceral, confrontational weapon against institutional coldness, delivered by an independent voice that refuses to compromise.