Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Bang by Barry Lyga

This was a really powerful novel.  It is a story that leaves you wracked with emotions.  One minute you are happy at the good things that are starting to form in Sebastian's life, the things that are taking him away from the knowledge that when he was just 4 years old he shot and killed his infant sister.  In this next moment you are pleading with him to fulfill the terrible destiny he has decided he deserves.  And in the end, you are filled with a hope that the healing has begun and the future very well may be bright for this young man.

This is definitely a worthwhile read.  It is fairly short and is a quick read.  But when you pick it up, know that you will be jumping on to an emotional roller coaster.   

From Amazon:

This is Where it Ends, Hate List, and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock readers will appreciate this heartbreaking novel about living with your worst mistake from New York Times bestselling author Barry Lyga.

A chunk of old memory, adrift in a pool of blood.

Sebastian Cody did something horrible, something no one--not even Sebastian himself--can forgive. At the age of four, he accidentally shot and killed his infant sister with his father's gun.

Now, ten years later, Sebastian has lived with the guilt and horror for his entire life. With his best friend away for the summer, Sebastian has only a new friend--Aneesa--to distract him from his darkest thoughts. But even this relationship cannot blunt the pain of his past. Because Sebastian knows exactly how to rectify his childhood crime and sanctify his past. It took a gun to get him into this.

Now he needs a gun to get out.

Unflinching and honest, Bang is the story of one boy and one moment in time that cannot be reclaimed, as true and as relevant as tomorrow's headlines.