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?
So I’ve mentioned my steady diet of horror lately?
That’s kind of how I wound up reading Andrew Joseph White’s COMPOUND FRACTURE.
If I’m honest, I’ve been less & less drawn to YA lately, and so I can’t say that White’s books had necessarily been on my radar (though the covers for his books are incredibly beautiful & instantly recognizable to me). So it was the cover reveal for his upcoming adult horror debut from Saga, YOU WEREN’T MEANT TO BE HUMAN, that really caught my eye!
And I guess I just wanted to check out one of his books prior to that one & here we are. COMPOUND FRACTURE sounded right up my street & dang, I fucking loved this!There’s a handful of YA books I’ve read (Chuck Wendig’s ATLANTA BURNS is the first that springs to mind) where I had to stop myself on several occasions and double check that it was, in fact, a YA book.
Because goddamn, COMPOUND FRACTURE has teeth. This book shocked me multiple times & is for sure as violent and upsetting as I think it’s possible for a YA book to be.
The book is set in Twist Creek County, West Virginia, in the heart of the Appalachians. Our main character is Miles Abernathy, and his family has lived in this area for generations. It’s in their blood.
As the book opens, Miles is writing an email to his parents, coming out as trans. He then dashes off to a party with some interesting photographs he needs to share with his friend, Cooper.
Without revealing too much, the photos are pretty damning to Sheriff Davies, a man responsible for a great deal of suffering in the town. Not only that, but the Davies’s and the Abernathy’s have been feuding for generations. So, much like the Appalachians & West Virginia, a deep mistrust and hatred for Sheriff Davies runs in Miles’s blood.
But at the party, Miles is brutally beaten by Sheriff Davies’s son (and two other boys), in an attack that leaves Miles hospitalized & with permanent damage to one of his eye sockets. This assault sets off an explosive chain reaction of events in Miles’s life that left me feeling breathless.
If I had one criticism of COMPOUND FRACTURE it’s that, for a book with a ton of history & local lore packed into the text, it’s not exactly a heavily plotted book. Plenty of things happen, but it’s a hard book to really describe in terms of plot. I think this would have bothered me more had the writing not been so compelling & the characters so beautifully written.
I read an interview (or saw a quote somewhere) with Andrew Joseph White where he mentioned that he exclusively writes his protagonists as trans & autistic, and that’s a huge element to this story. We’re meeting Miles just as he’s coming out (slowly) as trans, and just as he’s (somewhat unintentionally) realizing he’s autistic. So in a way, this book is mostly about Miles figuring himself out, and slowly coming to terms with things about himself that he either never understood, or just took for granted.
I fucking adored Miles’s family. Oof. The scenes with Miles & his parents were some of my favorites. They are certainly more left-leaning than many of the people in their community, and I think White paints a really thoughtful portrait of two parents who desperately love their kid, but struggle a bit to understand all these changes Miles is going through. But there are just some achingly sweet & tender moments of Miles’s parents using Miles’s new name & pronouns, or correcting others who deadname or misgender Miles. Yeah, this was really such a beautiful component to the story.
And Lady! Oh my god, Miles has a dog named Lady, and she’s the most loyal & badass companion! And don’t worry, she makes it out just fine!
COMPOUND FRACTURE is an angry, political book, and the overall vibe is just punk as fuck. Miles is a burgeoning socialist & feels deeply connected to a place that isn’t necessarily a safe haven for queer folks. So things have been tough for Miles, and they only get tougher as the story rolls on, and things get more & more violent.
I dug this so much! Miles is someone you can’t help but root for, even as he makes some choices that might not be exactly ideal. Yeah, I loved this one! I couldn’t have been more impressed with Andrew Joseph White’s writing, and I’m ten times more excited for YOU WEREN’T MEANT TO BE HUMAN than I already was!
Grimdark Dad 