by Ron Rash
First published 1989
Jake Roedel is fifteen when he enlists with the First Kansas Irregulars, a Confederate guerrilla unit operating along the Kansas-Missouri border. The teenage recruit expects to find glory and clear purpose fighting for the Southern cause. Instead, Jake witnesses brutal raids on civilian settlements and summary executions of prisoners. The irregulars move through a landscape torn apart by neighbor-against-neighbor warfare, where allegiances shift like smoke and mercy becomes a luxury few can afford. As Jake participates in increasingly savage attacks, he begins to see the war's true face. The violence he encounters forces him to confront uncomfortable questions about his own beliefs and the cause he serves. Jake must decide whether to continue following orders that sicken him or risk everything by breaking away from the only brotherhood he has known. His struggle becomes one of conscience against loyalty, innocence against experience.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, moral-dilemma
Setting: Kansas, Missouri
Period: 19th-Century
Paperback · Tor Books
Content warnings: violence, war