Book Review: Compound Fracture

Book ReviewBook Reviews
Written By Paula Granell

What’s it About?

Sometimes the past isn’t meant to be in the past. Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you.

On the night that Miles

Abernathy comes out to his parents as a trans boy, the unthinkable happens. When he wakes up in the hospital, he finds that the past has come to haunt him. Literally. Now he’s caught in a web of lies, ghosts, murder and hate and he doesn’t know how to get out of it, of if it’s even possible to get out of it. No one connected to him is safe and not everybody he thinks he can trust deserves that trust. But now Miles is fighting for not just his life, but the life of those around him. Chaos ensues.

My Favorite…

Favorite Character: Amber. She isn’t a big character. She isn’t around much but she stole my heart. She’s a motherly woman with Autism and a heart bigger then the town she lives in. She’s fierce, strong, sweet and empathetic. She has this moment with Miles that gripped my heart and both broke it and healed it all at the same time.

Least Favorite Character: The Sherriff. Sure, he’s a jerk and he does bad things, but the thing that gets me the most is that he’s an adult! And he’s an adult that has power in the judicial system, at least locally. I get that the the Davies family and the Abernathy family have a Hatfields and McCoys type situation happening, but it’s been generations. Someone has to end the cycle. The fact that he continues it in such a violent and hateful way as if someone had murdered his son, with such vile and hate is ridicules to me. Yes, you are the butthead, sir. No doubt.

Favorite Part: There’s this point in the second half of the book. It’s the event that I mentioned above when I said that my favorite character is Amber. The moment I fell in love with her, in her kitchen, that’s the moment that had the greatest impact on me.It broke my heart, healed my heart, and educated me all at the same time.

Least Favorite Part:There’s a part towards the end. It’s violent and bloody and stomach churning. It’s a moment that tracks with the story, for the most part and that had to happen but I’m not sure it needed to go as far as it did. However it’s on brand for Andrew Joseph White.

Other Thoughts:

So much of my love for this book, I think, stems from the author. He’s rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors, and author that I will read anything his name is on. Andrew Joseph White is a Autistic trans man with a love for dark, gore and monsters, especially monsters who look like us. In everything I’ve read of his thus far(three books),he perfectly intertwines who he is and what he loves into gripping, emotional, heartfelt stories with a bloody coating in a way that can only be called art. He can make my stomach churn, my heart break and me cry all with in a few pages. He makes that which many would consider “other” and beautifully proves that it just…is. It’s not weird. It’s not ugly. It’s not wrong. It’s just perfectly imperfect and breathtaking to be around.

I love the interconnection between generations past and current generations. I reveled in the mystery of what was happening, was Miles really seeing a ghost? Was it a product of his brain injury? Was he having a psychotic break? I fumed at the way pride and ego formed their own monster within the characters and ultimately resulted in more blood shed. Why didn’t they just leave? Why didn’t they break the cycle? How did they not see how ridiculous it all was; how needless it was.

I did, however, feel like, at some points, the gore and violence could have been pulled back some. The two biggest examples being Saint Abernathy’s death and a particular event with Cooper.However, the extremity of the acts are on par with the gore, hate and violence that Mr. White excels at. It’s heart stopping and stomach churning but it also feels right at home in his work, like maybe it didn’t need to be to that degree, but it doesn’t feel out of place or over the top, either. This particularly impresses me becuase it almost any other setting, it would feel excessive and put there for the sake of the gore, not the story. It’s a fine line and, in this case, is treaded carefully, though not always necessarily.

Upon closing the cover of this library book for the last time, I knew, without a doubt, that I will be needing my own physical copy of this book as well as any other book Mr. White writes or has written. While, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone with a weak stomach, but it’s perfect for anyone who enjoys some body horror with heart.

My Ratings:

I give this book a

7

out of

10 Railroad Spikes

But that’s just what I thought. What did you think? Did you love it? Was it too much for you? Will you be checking out the rest of Andrew Joseph White’s work? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Paula Granell
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