Figuring out how to love oneself is already pretty difficult as is, but it's even harder when you have to figure that out while also dealing with a toxic home environment, and the hectic social climate that is high school. For Dante Greyheart, a 15-year-old social recluse who also loves to skate, this is the exact predicament he has found himself in during his teenage years. And while he loves to solve mathematical problems, this is one problem he'd prefer to avoid completely. Everything about Dante, including his approach to life in general, can be described as gray. However, Dante may find that learning what it truly means to love yourself will help him find the vibrance he's been seeking this whole time. W.B. Apenteng is a 22-year-old college student who is currently studying at SUNY Buffalo State University as a Writing major. From the very moment Apenteng was introduced to literature at a young age, and was told that he held lots of potential as a writer by his 5th grade English teacher, he has been writing ever since. While he has written a lot in the past few years, he never completed anything until he wrote The Color Within. The novel is heavily inspired by his own experiences growing up as a teenager, and also stems from the obstacles he faced as he got older as well. However, the novel isn't purely autobiographical as the main character, Dante Greyheart, still has his own unique experiences despite there being some parallels between Apenteng's life and his. What started off as simply a way for Apenteng to cope, and express his deep-seated pain, ended up being something greater than himself. The Color Within is a novel that a lot of people need to read in order to learn what it means to truly love yourself, and how it can make it easier for you to love others once you do that.
