First published 2005
Vernon Little watches his best friend Jesus commit mass murder at their Texas high school, then turn the gun on himself. Now the fifteen-year-old faces accusations that he helped plan the massacre. His mother obsesses over appliance deliveries while twisting guilt into every conversation. Officer Vaine Gurie has already decided Vernon's guilt before starting her investigation. Reporter Eulalio Ledesma shifts between fatherly concern and predatory manipulation as media crews swarm their small town of Martirio. Vernon's cynical observations cut through the diet-obsessed townspeople and their Bar-B-Chew Barn rituals, but the walls close in around him. He runs toward Mexico, chasing a beach cabin fantasy from a movie, with police and television cameras trailing behind. His smart-mouthed exterior cracks to reveal a confused teenager grappling with friendship, loss, and a justice system more interested in spectacle than truth.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, crime, contemporary
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Texas, Martirio, Mexico
Period: 21st-century
336 pages · Paperback · ISIS Large Print Books
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness