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A review by clockworkstars
Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White
dark
emotional
tense
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
“The only way you'll get me to leave this state is in a body bag. For all its problems, it's mine. For all the overdose deaths, environmental disasters, and reactionary politics, West Virginia is mine.”
5☆|5
I believe that this is one of the best books I have read in a very long time, and it's starting to be an issue as it's the third time in ten days that I've said those very specific words. What is the common point with all of these times? I was always talking about Andrew Joseph White's book. Some authors become better with each work, and so far, it seems to be the case for White. I read his novels in chronological order, and I loved each one a bit more than the previous one. Every time.
Unlike his other books, I do not believe that Compound Fracture qualifies as horror, and I wouldn't call it fantasy either. We are in for following Miles Abernathy, a 16-year-old trans autistic boy in 2017, living in West Virginia and loving his land behind being a socialist in this mostly conservative place. His county has been ruled by the same family for hundreds of years. And let's just say that they are not the most sympathetic people to exist. One of them was responsible for killing his great-great-grandfather, all back in 1917, executing him after that he was responsible for a miners’ rebellion. And now, Miles has proof that the current sheriff is responsible for the accident that injured his dad, killed his friend's mom, and injured others. To add to that, the night he came out to his parents, the son of the said sheriff found the evidence and followed him into the woods to nearly beat him to death with his friends. When he wakes up at the hospital, there is the ghost of a miner looking at him, and the sheriff threatening him to silence…
This book is for queer people. Queer angry people, leftists who are angry at the world but still love their country. Still wish they could change it. This book has a lot of anger in it. It's about a family that has been living in fear for the last hundred years, and another family that made them and the entire city live in that fear. This book was about being hurt for entire generations and making it stop, finally.
It is brutal. It might not be horror, but it's still heavy — I put you the author's TW at the end of the review — and has an aspect of paranormal that is deeply enjoyable. Our main character, Miles, is an incredible person. He is amazingly written and deeply human. I said it already, but reading White's transgender and autistic character always makes me feel something. And Miles was not the exception. He is wonderful, and how the author wrote his self-discoveries made me want to cry — in a good way. Also, he has an amazing dog, Lacy, and she's such a good girl, I love her. But as I said before, he lives in a conservative place. And while his parents are parents in gold, I can't really say that his coming out went amazingly well. So among the TW, I need to insist on the transphobia in this story. It is really heavy. Please read carefully.
But back to the characters, I love how the author wrote them. Next to Miles, we had his parents, who I really liked. They are not perfect, but they are trying. And it's so important to me. I especially loved his dad, but his mom was nice too. We also got Cooper, his ex-friend, with whom he is going to reconnect in the book. I won't say a lot about their relationship in order to avoid spoilers, but I liked it. I liked how White is able to write complex characters, to the point where at the end of the book I still don't have a definitive opinion on some of them. Truly, I love morally grey characters so much. Also, we got Dallas, who is my new favourite character because they are extraordinary. They are openly queer and anarchist and honestly slay. I love them. About the antagonists, I believe that they are my favourite out of AJW's books. It might come from the fact that I stand on the left politically speaking and that I care enough about politics than to have strong opinions, but I really liked despise Sheriff Davies. He was well-written, even though that the fact he seemed to be the only wealthy person out of this town was a bit weird.
This book is brilliant. It is amazing, it is once again unique. I truly loved its plot and how the author dealt with his story. I read it in a day, and couldn't put it down unless I was forced to. This book is for me, as the two previous books of the author were, a favourite. After about 20% of the book, I knew that this author was now a favourite of mine, and I am happy with this information. I have one last thing to say, but it's semi-spoilers. It's about the identity of a character and self-discovery. If you don't consider that as a spoiler, then you are free to read it. But, if you rather go into the book while knowing as little as possible/rather living the self discovery while reading the book — as I did, 10/10 experience, then skip the next paragraph, and we'll see each other after that for the conclusion and the trigger warnings.
Miles has two major self-discoveries in this story, but I would to go back on the fact that, during the story, he is going to discover that he is on the aromantic spectrum. And this, this part of the book, is for me so well-written and important. It helped make this book a 5-star book in my eyes. Firstly, aromantic representation is so essential in literature nowadays, especially in YA and NA books. And it is even more significant that Miles is aro, not aroace. As with most of the thematics talked about by AJW, this felt so natural. This felt so well-written. 10 out of 10 representation and writing for this point.
In conclusion, I do not believe that this book is perfect. No, it has defaults, every book does. But this book remains brilliant. It remains one of the best books that I read in the last few years. It remains an incredible read. It is for me Andrew Joseph White's best book so far, but this may be totally subjective (it is). Compound Fracture will be out on September 3, and I deeply recommend going to grab a copy then — I most definitely will. Thank you to Netgalley and Daphne Press for sending me an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review :)
TW:
*Graphic violence, with a focus on politically motivated, cyclical feud violence involving law enforcement and/or children
*Queerphobia and transphobia: deadnaming, misgendering, family conflict regarding trans identity (resolved), internalized queerphobia from a character on the aromantic spectrum (resolved)
*Opioid dependency and its effects on family; main character uses opioids after surgery and undergoes withdrawal after quitting without medical supervision
*Physical force and emotional manipulation by intimate partner
*Animal harm (butchering deer, off-page revenge killing of a dog)
*Discussions of ableism, including internalized ableism; brief mention of disfiguremisia
*Emetophobia (vomiting) warning