7/13/2022: Charlie Mon’s debut adult book, Never Imagined, tells the story of two friends, Trip and Drevon. Trip is sentenced to prison time, whereas Drevon is forced to live out his probation with his father, Vernon, in the streets of San Bernardino, California. This is where the urban fiction element comes in.

Urban fiction, also known as street fiction, covers stories from America’s low-income, high-need neighborhoods. While African Americans are the predominant group in this genre, anyone growing up in a low-income, disadvantaged community can be a central character in an urban fiction story.

“The writing bug has always been in me, but it wasn’t until Dopey and J-Dee gave me the push that I dared to get my words out there,” said Mon explaining his rather late debut as an urban fiction writer. “I wanted to tell stories I had lived through, the stories that were, at times, stranger than fiction. Of course, Never Imagined isn’t a true story, but it is informed by my own experienced growing up in the ‘hood. I chose urban fiction because that was the only category representing that experience.”

Here are the three features from urban fiction prevalent in Mon’s Never Imagined.

Hyperrealism: Urban fiction takes reality and enlarges it twofold. It portrays sensitive material, including substance abuse, gang violence, police violence, and sexually explicit situations. There are several instances of sexually-explicit situations and run-ins with the law in Never Imagined. The book itself starts with crime and punishment for Trip and Drevon.
Love in the Ghetto: The portrayal of love in disadvantaged neighborhoods is quite different from love in most romance novels. It’s raw, gritty, and not suitable for younger readers. In Never Imagined, Kimberly and Michael’s romantic arc was unconventional because of the backdrop.
Backdrop: The backdrop in Never Imagined was the wastelands of San Bernardino, California. In most urban fiction novels, the backdrop is a disadvantaged neighborhood, which usually influences the story’s trajectory.

Never Imagined is now available in most online stores. It’s the first book in an eponymous series, with the second book in the works.

For more information about the series and Charlie Mon, reach out via the contact details below.

About the Author
Charles Mon penned his debut adult book and the first eponymous book in the Never Imagined four-book series after getting encouraged by J-Dee Cooper from the former hip hop group, Da Lench Mob. He plans to make these books more widely available and donate the proceeds to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation for research on a disease he’s battling. Mon has also written a children’s book, The Bee My Friend, and is currently busy writing the second book, Never Imagined II: Yin and Yang. To get in touch with the author, refer to the information given below.

Contact Details
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Imagined-Charlie-Mon/dp/B09T328451/ref=sr_1_1
Email: [email protected]