Shine by Lauren Myracle

Pub Date: May 2011

Fiction (Young Adult)

350 pgs.

I’ll admit, this book first came up on my radar due to the controversy over the National Book Awards. (Condensed version: in October, Shine was mistakenly listed as a National Book Award finalist for Young Adult Literature.  Myracle was initially told her book could stay among the ranking titles, but then was abruptly asked to withdraw.)  As it turns out, Myracle may reap many unexpected rewards of the National Book Awards Board’s gaffe.   After learning of the book’s premise, I, for one, was intrigued, and I know I’m not alone.

Patrick, a gay teenager in a “back-woods” Southern town, is brutally attacked one night, and left for dead, strung up with a gas nozzle at a local gas station.  Cat, his lifelong best friend until she withdrew from their friendship three years ago for reasons inexplicable to Patrick, is devastated by the hate crime and sets off on her own to uncover the perpetrator.

Myracle, until now best known for her “Internet Girls” book series (TTYL, TTFN, L8rG8r), takes a decidedly darker turn with Shine, lacing her tale with brutal realism and conflicted characters.  Cat’s ventures into the underbelly of her town bring to mind Daniel Woodrell’s starkly beautiful Winter’s Bone (see my review of Woodrell’s book).  Her town is teeming with abuse of all kinds: sexual, drug-related, physical.   As you might expect, there is also a strong undercurrent of homophobia.

I have to say, while I was very admiring of both the premise of the book and the descriptions of the characters, not to mention the lovely cover, Shine took a while, longer than I expected, to grab me.  However as I read more, I became more invested in Cat and members of her close-knit community.  Two thirds of the way through, this book reached true “un-put-downable” status for me.  I do have my quibbles:  while Cat and most of the other characters were well-drawn, I wish we could have had more insight into the life of Patrick himself.  The mystery was satisfying, but the ending was a bit puzzling and “convenient.”  I don’t want to give too much away, though: powerful and affecting,  Shine is definitely worth a read.

-Becky