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Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence
Moderate: Deadnaming
Minor: Sexual assault
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Car accident, Murder, Outing
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, War
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Deadnaming, Drug use, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Vomit, Toxic friendship
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Stalking
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Transphobia, Violence, Blood
Moderate: Police brutality, Outing
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Transphobia, Police brutality, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
The raw, queer, communist, punk, narrative that REALLY does not pussyfoot around how fucked over rural communities are by their governments regardless of who's in power. I know plenty of people who claim to be conservative but truly are just fucking mad at the government. It is angry and hopeful.
And as an audiobook this was such an amazing experience. Dani Martineck made this such an amazing listening experience and made me hopeful that I do in fact love audiobooks.
Graphic: Gore, Transphobia
Moderate: Addiction, Vomit
Minor: Animal death
Okay, so. Picking up the new AJ White book, I should've known what I was getting myself into. I knew what I was getting myself into, in a way. But then again, do we ever know what we're getting ourselves into when it comes to AJ White?
I would be difficult for me to review this book without taking Hell Followed With us and The Spirit Bares Its Teeth into account since both of them left such an impression on me, so I'm not even going to try.
In a way, Compound Fracture isn't as heavy as either HFWU or SPBIT; then again, in another way, it's heavier. So I think it evens out in the end.
This was definitely the most intense of the three, in the sense that imo the tension was highest and overall, I spent more times clutching hands to my face or chest than I did with HFWU or TSBIT.
If I had to sum of my feelings on Compound Fracture in a single word, it would be gut-wrenching.
Overall, I think this is a 4.5/5 stars for me, rounded up.
I agree with others reviewers in that Compound Fracture tackles a LOT of issues at once: class (warfare), generational conflict, gender and trans identity, queerness in general & sexuality, disability & neurodivergence, trauma, substance use & abuse, police brutality and abuse of power, violence against humans and animals, a broad spectrum of political issues, the overall US political landscape (particularly in West Virginia), the list goes on.
While there were times when these did feel like too many issues to bring up in one story, on the whole I do think the mashing of themes did work.
I think that Compound Fracture being set in our real world, our present, is part of why it hit harder than HWFU and TSBIT; many of the issues it tackles just hit so close to home and as a kid growing up in this world, Miles' frustration with and anger at the political system was more personally relatable than Silas' experience with the asylum or Benji turning into Seraph.
I have seen some reviews that are critical of Compound Fracture's representation of the South/West Virginia; as a German, I can't speak to the validity of those criticisms. What I can say is that there were a few instances in which the generalization of the South felt a little simplified, though, at least to me.
!SPOILERS AHEAD!
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- overall, I think AJ White did a fantastic job with the paragraph & chapter spacing in this book. realizing there was a 1-page-chapter coming raised the tension so well, and the paragraph spacing across pages allowed lots of moments to hit so much harder than they would have without having to turn the page
- I loved Miles' ability to see that Noah, Eddie, and Paul were all perpetrators as well as victims of the culture and society that raised them
- go Dallas! Love them
- Miles being supported in his autism-specific needs for the first time almost made me cry, go Amber!
- the thoughts I have on Cooper... man, that kid deserved better, but then again, I could smell the trauma turning to violence from a mile away
- loved the coming together as a community at the end
- the random mention of Zuko lmao
- I have so many questions about Saint Abernathy! I get that the mystery is the point, but what I would give to know what was actually going on man
- I was scared that Saint would turn into a Deus Ex Machina moment at the end and was glad it was mainly the phone call to Miles' dad that saved him, with just a hint of Saint's interference
- I do think there are a few instances of writing that didn't live up to my expectation of AJ White after HFWU and TSBIT, usually because they were too on the nose when White is normally so good at showing rather than telling
- the pacing was alright, but once again, didn't work as well as the previous two books imo; I didn't have a clear view of where the stories was going and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, here I think I would have enjoyed a better idea of what the story was building towards (I could guess, ofc, but still)
My official AJ White book ranking:
1. Hell Followed With Us
2. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth
3. Compound Fracture
But I'd recommend all of them to everyone okay with body horror any day!
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Deadnaming, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Transphobia, Violence, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Outing
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Fire/Fire injury