Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White
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 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?
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.
COVER ARTIST: Evangeline Gallagher
PUBLISHER: Peachtree Teen
YEAR: 2024
LENGTH: 376 pages
AGE: YA
GENRE: Thriller
RECOMMENDED: Highly
Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Main Character(s), Trans Main Character(s), Closeted/Questioning Main Character(s), Aro Main Character(s).
*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.
COMPOUND FRACTURE is gripping and visceral, staunchly supportive of the essence of a place and people without pretending away their flaws. Instead, Andrew Joseph White wraps them together into an intense and periodically informative thriller with Miles Abernathy, an Appalachian, trans, autistic boy in a small West Virginia town, distilling a hundred years of Socialist and Anarchist history into the most salient parts: fuck capitalism, support workers, and protect those you love by doing a whole bunch of things that make for an excellent thriller, but a pretty nerve-wracking existence.
Still partly in the closet, Miles is beaten nearly to death by the Sheriff's son and his crew, two boys who might be his friends but are definitely accomplices. It's another moment in a hundred years of violence between their families, going back to when Miles' ancestor, Saint Abernathy, was killed by the Sheriff's ancestor when he incited a miners' rebellion.
Worldbuilding and characterization are deeply intertwined as Miles shows his West Virginia town through his love for it as a place, his fierce need to not let the bigots take it over and run his family out. He's a trans boy in a place where the Sheriff uses the letter of the law the warp the spirit of it, and his own whims to warp the letter. Miles describes so many small moments of his difficulties masking various autistic traits and general neurodivergence that I was surprised when, late in the book, it becomes clear that he hasn't actually realized that this is another place where he can claim a label and take up space for himself. It's really nice to see this, where Miles goes from having just one person who's slightly not shitty but is inconsistent in his support of Miles (Cameron, the friend who saves his life), to having a community of queer and neurodivergent people who also want to fight for their town. He starts in a place that's very precarious, not quite unsupported, but uncertain, and ends up fighting a bloody battle to get to somewhere largely better for those who remain.
Things I love, in no particular order: supportive parents (with a slight learning curve), neurodivergent solidarity, queer solidarity, class solidarity, ACAB, Miles finding connection with his ancestor.
If you like this you may like:
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston
- The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris
- Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
Graphic/Explicit CW for transphobia, outing, fire/fire injury, blood, gore, violence, injury detail, gun violence, murder, child death, death.
Moderate CW for alcohol, misgendering, deadnaming, bullying, ableism, classism, PTSD, vomit, medical content, medical trauma, car accident, animal cruelty, animal death, child abuse.
Minor CW for sexual content, pregnancy, panic attacks, drug use, drug abuse.
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