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A review by skylarkblue1
Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Representations: https://trello.com/c/PaFot8iC/115-compound-fracture-by-andrew-joseph-white
Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
I think this book is a perfect example for why the genre "New Adult" should exist. It's incredibly gory and graphic, politics while fine to read where pretty complicated and heavy on that front and in general.. considering YA is sold to kids as young as 13 I don't think it's really something that kids that young would have a good time with.
I thought the characters where as good as always with AJW's books, it's pretty impressive imo how he can take a queer autistic teen story and create such different and unique stories! Representations where as great as always, really love how different the characters across the spectrum are from him, and just how raw the emotions are from them all. Not all the characters here feel properly fleshed out though, there's a lot and we're told more than we're shown for most of them.
The story was a fair bit wild, it kinda was there but wasn't at the same time. Generational trauma and using that as a device to just write gore and politics ig? The character stories are where this book really stands out imo. It might be set largely in reality but don't go into it thinking it reads as realistic. It's batshit insane and everything just works out like clockwork in a way. But if you're going in expecting that - and you probably should be if you've read his other works, it's pretty similar - then you'll have a good time with it. I can't really think of any major issues with the plot other than "how the hell did it reach this level" lol.
Some very nice explicit aromantic rep, and the new side of the autism rep from him was really excellent to read! The shower scene just made me tear up with just how much it made me re-think everything around that!! Honestly this book made me tear up a few times with it's representations oop... It's just the really insane levels of gore that really is what kinda took me out of the book. I've read a ton of horror, I've watched a ton of horror, a lot of gory slashers too. But especially for something marketed and sold as YA... I'm not sure about that one. It was a slightly hard to stomach read for me as a 23 yr old horror veteran - I dread to think how a 13 yr old would handle it. Please can more people advocate for New Adult to become a book age range!! Books like this really just fall into that gap that age range would perfectly cover in my opinion!
Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
I think this book is a perfect example for why the genre "New Adult" should exist. It's incredibly gory and graphic, politics while fine to read where pretty complicated and heavy on that front and in general.. considering YA is sold to kids as young as 13 I don't think it's really something that kids that young would have a good time with.
I thought the characters where as good as always with AJW's books, it's pretty impressive imo how he can take a queer autistic teen story and create such different and unique stories! Representations where as great as always, really love how different the characters across the spectrum are from him, and just how raw the emotions are from them all. Not all the characters here feel properly fleshed out though, there's a lot and we're told more than we're shown for most of them.
The story was a fair bit wild, it kinda was there but wasn't at the same time. Generational trauma and using that as a device to just write gore and politics ig? The character stories are where this book really stands out imo. It might be set largely in reality but don't go into it thinking it reads as realistic. It's batshit insane and everything just works out like clockwork in a way. But if you're going in expecting that - and you probably should be if you've read his other works, it's pretty similar - then you'll have a good time with it. I can't really think of any major issues with the plot other than "how the hell did it reach this level" lol.
Some very nice explicit aromantic rep, and the new side of the autism rep from him was really excellent to read! The shower scene just made me tear up with just how much it made me re-think everything around that!! Honestly this book made me tear up a few times with it's representations oop... It's just the really insane levels of gore that really is what kinda took me out of the book. I've read a ton of horror, I've watched a ton of horror, a lot of gory slashers too. But especially for something marketed and sold as YA... I'm not sure about that one. It was a slightly hard to stomach read for me as a 23 yr old horror veteran - I dread to think how a 13 yr old would handle it. Please can more people advocate for New Adult to become a book age range!! Books like this really just fall into that gap that age range would perfectly cover in my opinion!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Vomit, Car accident, and Death of parent
When I say graphic I mean graphic. Like at one point there's an entire chapter dedicated to just describing the most gory and drawn-out death I've ever read in a book and that's not even all the gore there is.