Mexican guy. White guy. Classmates and enemies from across the border and on each other’s turf. Big fight. White guy wins. Next day, he’s dead. Everyone’s a suspect. Everyone’s guilty of something.
Does what you look like or where you come from finally determine where your loyalties lie? Who’s Us? Who’s Them? Which side is your side? Is it Truth? Contemporary politics, the consequences of guys-being-guys, and questions about faith and personal responsibility pulse throughout the pages of this provocative, eloquent debut.
This distinctly modern vision of adolescence morphs silkily into a clever noir adaptation…. Murder, mystery, and detection pulse through this complex book, keeping readers feverishly wondering who done it and why. –Shelly Huntington, for School Library Journal.
Powers’s first novel powerfully combines timely story lines regarding illegal immigration, school violence and racial tension…. The structure Powers builds is ambitious, and she manipulates it for maximum surprise. —Publisher’s Weekly, starred review
Convincing friendships and feuds create a sense of the long-standing relationships between classmates and reflect the transitive nature of the high-school social structure. Powers devotes most of his story to establishing those intricate networks….The depiction of a post-9/11 world revisiting issues of nationalism and prejudice makes this tale relevant to modern audiences. —Kirkus Reviews
Excerpt
So of course, I do it: put on the whole gangsta attitude, swagger over to Bernie. He starts to rise—guess he’s thinking I’m going to take him on right there—but I just say, out of the corner of my mouth, “I’m gonna let you finish that nice little sandwich, Bernie, and that’s the last thing I’m gonna let you do.” It just pops out of my mouth, like a bad movie.
Powers’s first novel powerfully combines timely story lines regarding illegal immigration, school violence and racial tension. The first of six narrators, MacKenzie Malone attends a Jesuit high school in El Paso, Tex., where most of the Mexican students have branded him a racist after the controversial letter to the editor he’s written appears in the local newspaper. Off his Ritalin (he’s traded it for coke) and unable to take the taunting, Mackenzie beats up a Mexican classmate so badly that the guy ends up in the hospital. That night Mackenzie, still narrating, is stabbed to death in his front yard. In subsequent chapters, six
boys-among them witnesses, suspects, friends-react to the news and reveal their own disturbing secrets as they alternately narrate. On the surface, the characters fall into stock roles (the closeted gay friend, the brilliant kid hiding behind a stoner persona, the geeky outcast, the peacemaker, and so on), but the author carefully individuates their back stories even as she links the boys via their common fears. If some of the voices sound a little similar and if some of the action seems implausible, the psychological drama as a whole has enough depth and dimension to compensate. The structure Powers builds is ambitious, and
she manipulates it for maximum surprise. Ages 14-up. (July)
School Library Journal
Gr 10 Up–When their friend Mac is murdered, seven confused, angry Catholic school classmates seek answers in El Paso, TX, a town defined by boundaries, cultural tensions, and strict allegiances. In looking for the killer, the boys end up embodying Mac himself, who questioned everything: God, his own uncontrollable rage, terrorism, and the volatile relationships between Mexicans and Americans. Powers delves deeply into the psyche of each of the boys, who narrate chapters and fuel the book’s momentum. Teens will see themselves in these realistic characters, each struggling with unique challenges. Isaiah tries to make peace in the wars raging in his home and school; Greg looks for someone to pay for his best friend’s death; Josh uses drugs to muddle his memory; Dan desperately hides his homosexuality from his best buddy; Alex, the invisible outsider, plays detective; and Jim Hall wrestles unfathomable demons. Through them, readers confront the complicated inner worlds of young people today. The residual effects of religion, immigration, and dysfunctional fathers crowd these boys’ minds. Although their language sometimes seems improbably elevated, these characters will reach mature teens eager to hear their own preoccupations echoed and, perhaps, clarified. They might also notice how this distinctly modern vision of adolescence morphs silkily into a clever noir adaptation. As Alex makes rounds visiting suspects, he slips into the clipped speech and hawkish manner of a fedora-wearing private eye. Murder, mystery, and detection pulse through this complex book, keeping readers feverishly wondering who done it and why. –Shelley Huntington, New York Public Library
Kirkus
Strained racial tensions snap after a student’s violent death. MacKenzie Malone’s dedication to national pride frays relationships at his El Paso high school, where students are still recovering from last year’s suicide bombing of a local bridge by a Mexican national protesting the treatment of immigrant workers. Malone turns up dead hours after a confrontation with a fellow student, and his classmates must examine their own prejudices to restore order in a polarized community. The six distinct voices used to examine the tension between adopted country and ethnic pride rarely falter; the fast pace of events ensure the narrative remains compelling. Convincing friendships and feuds create a sense of the long-standing relationships between classmates and reflect the transitive nature of the high-school social structure. Powers devotes most of his story to establishing those intricate networks, ultimately leaving the motivation for Malone’s murder unclear at best. Though the ending is unsatisfying, the depiction of a post-9/11 world revisiting issues of nationalism and prejudice makes this tale relevant to modern audiences. (Fiction. YA)
The sequel to Goalden Girl. Gemma's school football team is well-established. Her young step-sister Portia is also becoming a promising player, until an accident changes her life forever
