Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nervousleigh 's review for:
Compound Fracture
by Andrew Joseph White
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
White's debut was one of my favorite novels I read last year, and he has really surpassed himself here. Absolutely gut wrenching, but incredibly satisfying and hopeful as a queer, leftist Southerner. I especially loved the exploration of transness and autism here. Both threads felt very honest to conversations I've had among the trans and autistic people and where they overlap in my life, and I'm very glad teenagers have this book to model those conversations for them.
Particularly worth reading if you're a US American from outside Appalachia (or the South, a lot of this story translates for us, too) and think of yourself as being any kind of leftist, if you can handle it - let this story humanize for you Appalachians, who are so often forgotten, ignored, or outright dismissed when we talk about what it means to be a community and struggle toward change. But this story is extremely upfront about the physical violence that can happen when oppressed people stand up for themselves, so please be mindful of the trigger warnings.
Particularly worth reading if you're a US American from outside Appalachia (or the South, a lot of this story translates for us, too) and think of yourself as being any kind of leftist, if you can handle it - let this story humanize for you Appalachians, who are so often forgotten, ignored, or outright dismissed when we talk about what it means to be a community and struggle toward change. But this story is extremely upfront about the physical violence that can happen when oppressed people stand up for themselves, so please be mindful of the trigger warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gun violence, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing
Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Deadnaming, Police brutality, Medical content