With another five stars, Andrew Joseph White hits it out of the park. Compound Fracture is a story about solidarity, identity, and family. It’s tender and transformative. Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts on Compound Fracture.
Summary
On the night Miles Abernathy—sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian—comes out as trans to his parents, he sneaks off to a party, carrying evidence that may finally turn the tide of the blood feud plaguing Twist Creek: Photos that prove the county’s Sheriff Davies was responsible for the so-called “accident” that injured his dad, killed others, and crushed their grassroots efforts to unseat him.
The feud began a hundred years ago when Miles’s great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, incited a miners’ rebellion that ended with a public execution at the hands of law enforcement. Now, Miles becomes the feud’s latest victim as the sheriff’s son and his friends sniff out the evidence, follow him through the woods, and beat him nearly to death.
In the hospital, the ghost of a soot-covered man hovers over Miles’s bedside while Sheriff Davies threatens Miles into silence. But when Miles accidently kills one of the boys who hurt him, he learns of other folks in Twist Creek who want out from under the sheriff’s heel. To free their families from this cycle of cruelty, they’re willing to put everything on the line—is Miles?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Compound Fracture toes the line between the past as ghosts and the past as ghosts. The ones who we cannot get over out of head and the ones that haunt us in darkened moments. Slightly supernatural, Compound Fracture is very much about putting the past to rest, about honoring and remembering the truth, about justice for the past. This generational rot of power and cruelty creates a community of silence, obedience, and fleeing. But behind it is also an environment ripe for those who say that enough is enough.
The compromises and swallowed words for survival. Except when we keep staying silent, nothing will ever change. We will pass down these stares. Until our descendants decide something has to change. Compound Fracture is very much about the in between. The moments before a spark is ignited and then what happens when an accidental event changes a town forever. It feels like a looming cliff, a precipice. But it could also be a transformation. Compound Fracture also explores Miles’ identity not only coming out to his family, but also his own sexuality.
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Compound Fracture explores telling the difficult truths. How we can feel trapped in a cycle of ‘just the way it is’, feeling like we have no escape, but what it takes to tip the scale. It’s another winner from Andrew Joseph White in my books! Find Compound Fracture on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.