Compound Fracture Book review

I love this book. Andrew Joseph white has such a grotesque and disgusting writing style and descriptions while having a voice so analytical and straight to the point. I love how horribly descriptive yet beautiful the book can feel at times. Miles is such an interesting character, that’s strong but scared. His family is realistic in the way they react to him coming out, this blend of being not completely accepting or knowing at all but not exactly rude about it either. People around him feel so 3 dimensional, yet it’s obscured through the eyes of Miles.

I love how the story isn’t completely about being trans or people accepting him, it doesn’t feel like fiction that is trying to explain trans people, it feels like a book for trans teenagers. It pulls no punches and is as gross and grimy as it needs to be, which is really good.

The only nitpick is that I wish that the characters relationships to Miles were explored more. I want to see Dallas fight for Miles, I want to see Mamaw and Papaw have a conversation with Miles. I want to get attached to these characters so It becomes more a gut punch when I don’t know what will happen to them.

Either way, I really like Compound Fracture (even a little more then Spirit bares it’s teeth) It really sets a good standard for more queer books to follow. It shows that we should make them gross, we should talk about sex and relationships and the morality of violence and the systems places build on. I won’t forgive Andrew for that dog scene though.