I read something about this book that made me really excited to read it when I found it at the library the other day. I don't remember exactly what it was I read, or why it excited me so much, but the actual reading experience was not as amazing as I had hoped it would be. It has amazing elements - a trans, autistic narrator, a bigoted small-town setting, a generations-old feud and socio-political commentary. Unfortunately, the sum was not greater than the parts.
The protagonist is Miles, who is transitioning and hasn't let everyone in his life know yet. The book starts with him writing an email to his parents, letting them know, before he heads off to a party where he's beaten half to death by the son of his family's arch-nemesis. The beef between Sheriff Davies and Miles' family is almost a century old, stemming from a miner's rebellion kicked off by Miles' great, great grandfather.
This relative from the past hovers over Miles as he recovers in hospital and appears at his side at key moments through the rest of the book as Miles tries to find a way to get revenge on the boys who hurt him and find peace for his long-suffering family by ending this feud once and for all.
Unfortunately, ending something as long-running and deeply ingrained in the fabric of the town as this feud isn't easy, and before too long, Miles has blood on his hands and bodies to dispose of. As he tries desperately to keep those he cares about safe, the stakes just keep getting higher and the body count rises.
There is a lot to like about this book. Miles is an interesting POV character with a raw, authentic Appalachian voice. I did take issue with some of his inner monologue because it grated on me that Miles considered himself right all the time, regardless of what was happening. And a lot of what was happening was not right, and Miles' part in what was happening was also not right.
I also really struggled with how evil the sheriff and his son were written. There was no attempt to give any reason for their ongoing hatred for the Abernathy family other than the fact these two families had hated each other for generations. I know this kind of long-running family feud is possible, but it didn't feel real to me and as a result, both Noah and the sheriff felt underwritten and cartoonish.
I also had problems with the way Miles' family were written. Their reactions to his coming out were confused and all over the place, and the fact they encouraged him to go alone to an abandoned mine to confront a kid who had put him in the hospital only a few weeks earlier, didn't sit well with me. Especially since they were supposedly so overprotective of Miles. What kind of overprotective parents send their kid off to face a bully with a gun?
It felt like a lot of the characters were written to fulfil representation of a type more than sitting organically within the story. Which is a shame because some of these characters could have been interesting if they'd had a more invested role in Miles' journey.
I also could not help noticing that while there were a lot of autistic, queer and trans people in this town, there were no people of color. I understand that this part of Virginia is very white, but it seemed unlikely that there was not one single person who wasn't. It's painted as a very conservative, right-leaning town, yet somehow, by the end of the book, most of the townsfolk are siding with the socialist trans kid rather than the sheriff whose values would align far more with their own. Which also didn't sit quite right with me.
So, I don't think I can really recommend this one. It was not an unenjoyable read, but so much of it didn't quite ring true to me that I feel uncomfortable about it.
But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:
Bestselling and award-winning author Andrew Joseph White returns with a queer Appalachian thriller, that pulls no punches, for teens who see the failures in our world and are pushing for radical change.
A gut-wrenching story following a trans autistic teen who survives an attempted murder, only to be drawn into the generational struggle between the rural poor and those who exploit them.
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 accidentally 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?
A visceral, unabashedly political page-turner that won’t let you go until you’ve reached the end, Compound Fracture is not for the faint of heart, but it is for every reader who is ready to fight for a better world.
