Synopsis
Dawn Bundy lives in a cave. In her head. Where's she's been hiding for two years. Hiding behind headphones. From the two hottest girls at school, in their impossibly short skirts and unbearably tight tops, their skin close enough to touch. Not talking to her mother, not about what matters. Not thinking of her dad, the drug addict, the ex-con, born-again but far gone. Two years is a long time. Enough for the cave to grow so small that her breath feels like stone in her throat. Two years is no time at all. Nowhere near enough to forget. To pretend that nothing happened. Deep one perfect morning.
Irreverent, edgy, laced with dark humor – and punctuated by Jesus and Mary Chain song lyrics — DAWN pulls no punches. A provocative dissection of family, friendship, and faith by the acclaimed Kevin Brooks.
“Complex questions of forgiveness and loss of faith, related in a spare, scattered voice…[with] a brilliantly realized, wrenching confrontation at the climax.”—Horn Book
"Brooks delivers a tense psychological thriller...hard-hitting."—Publishers Weekly
"[with] a gut-wrenching conclusion sure to shock readers...compelling."—Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Brooks (Black Rabbit Summer) delivers a tense psychological thriller narrated by 15-year-old Dawn, traumatized after an event that prompted her father to disappear two years earlier and left her with an alcoholic, pill-popping mother. A loner, Dawn walks her dogs Jesus and Mary, listens to the Jesus and Mary Chain, and plots how she might kill God (who she blames for her father's transgression and absence) even though “He doesn't exist. Which is why it's going to be kind of difficult to kill him.” The “two badass-iest girls from school” insert themselves into Dawn's life and begin to untangle the web of secrets that keep Dawn and her mother in stasis. Dawn's narration, punctuated with lists and song lyrics, proves compelling as the mystery unravels about her father's crimes, what transpired between Dawn and her father, and what her mother knows about it. Brooks presents the story's dark underpinnings—including substance abuse, drug dealing, and sexual abuse—responsibly and with suspense. Though this hard-hitting novel does not deliver happy endings, acceptance of the truth offers the characters a new beginning. Ages 14–up. (Dec.)