As he enters her backyard, Blade discovers Chapel kissing Van DeWish. Despite these warnings, Blade visits Chapel one final time before his trip to show her the tattoo he received in her honor. They even forbid Chapel from associating with Blade and threaten to call the police when they discover Blade and Chapel meeting secretly in their home. Her parents are prejudiced against Blade because they assume Blade lives a lifestyle plagued by drugs and promiscuity like his father. Chapel is Blade’s girlfriend and the daughter of a Christian reverend. Shocked and desperate for answers, Blade searches for his biological mother and discovers that she is a missionary named Lucy living in Ghana, Africa.īefore Blade departs on a journey to find Lucy, he decides to tattoo the name Chapel onto his bicep. In the heat of their argument, Storm reveals that Blade was adopted. The pair reaches a breaking point after Rutherford reprimands Blade for failing to defend Storm against criticism from her ex-boyfriend Van DeWish.

This resentment intensifies when Rutherford upstages Blade during his high-school commencement speech. After witnessing Rutherford continuously relapse despite countless bouts of rehab, Blade doubts that Rutherford will ever achieve sobriety and struggle to forgive him for the toll his addiction has taken on Blade and his sister, Storm. As the son of an internationally famous rock star named Rutherford, Blade struggles to escape the toxic influence of his narcissistic father. The story is told from the first-person narrative perspective of 17-year-old Blade Morrison: Hollywood and Africa. Written entirely in verse, Alexander’s novel is divided into two parts that reflect its primary settings.

The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Alexander, Kwame.

Alexander kwame