‘Compound Fracture’ Review. ARC review from 2023

ARC review from 2023

“Monsters don’t get to be innocent. Monsters don’t get to beg for mercy. They don’t deserve it.”

Compound Fracture

By Andrew Joseph White

5/5⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for an ARC of this book.

I began this book without even reading the blurb, so I was delighted to be thrown into a heart-racing action scene with that amazing writing style I’ve loved in AJW’s past books.

This book is set in a county in West Virginia called Twist Creek in 2017. Its been ruled by the same horrible family of sheriffs for a century, who are willing to hurt others to keep their dirty secrets. For example, as the blurb will tell you, Miles is seriously injured by Sheriff Davies’s son at the very beginning because he had photo evidence of the sheriff causing Cooper’s mother’s death. It’s also fiercely far right-wing, hating all diversity. Every single family is white American. So yeah, definitely not the ideal place for any member of a marginalised community to live.

Our protagonist is Miles, a sixteen-year old autistic trans boy. He’s a socialist, and he loves his state of West Virginia. He is honest, unafraid of his opinions unless they stand a physical threat to his family. Also sensible, brave, wary. I absolutely adored him as a protagonist, he was relatable in some ways, and had a strong personality. He also had the best dog, Lady.

Cooper, Miles’s old friend, immediately stood out as an important character to me. Through his kindness in the opening chapters, I assumed he was a good guy. Well, that opinion changed. I won’t say anything more because of spoilers.

Dallas, the brave enby who wasn’t afraid to share their political views openly in a community that opposed them, was easy to love as a character.

Miles’s father and mother were kind, caring, resilient. I love reading about supportive parents, who care for their children no matter what.

Sheriff Davies, the man who made an entire family fear for their safety due to his and his ancestors’ brutality, was the antagonist of this story. He was also sexist, at one point assuming Miles’s mother had been cooking when it had been his father upon barging into their house unannounced. It’s safe to say I loathed him. And Noah, he was also pure evil.

This book is, overall, about a community who have for a generation been harmed by the sheriff simply due to rebelling actions a century beforehand. This is how Miles stops it.

There was a paranormal aspect, if it can be called that. Miles sees the ghost of his great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, but even at the end he isn’t sure if Saint was real or not (though one event proves it, which I can’t mention).

The trans rep was perfect, as was the autistic rep. Thank you, Andrew Joseph White, for providing the trans autistic protagonists we need in literature.

Overall, I think this book is something else. Something unique, brilliant.

Brutal is the word I’d use to describe it, purely brutal, both the things that happen in this novel and its affect on the reader.

It is clearly a 5-star read.

Listen, this book is very heavy. There is a lot of violence, multiple murders, the transphobia is quite harsh, and if any trigger listed below is something you can’t read, please don’t force yourself to.

TWs: violence, transphobia, outing of a trans person, gun violence, abelism, murder, bullying, torture, kidnapping, blood, injuries, drug use, deadnaming, hate crime, death, emotional abuse, police brutality, gore, classism, child death, medical content, alcohol

The next TWs occur before the events of this book, but are still mentioned: pedophilia, car accident, death of a parent, fire, animal cruelty, animal death.

Queer rep:

Transmasc protagonist

Queer sc

Transmasc sc

Non-binary sc

Aromanic questioning protagonist.

Other rep:

Autistic protagonist

Side character with ADHD

2 side characters with PTSD

Autistic side character