Inexcusable

From the Publisher

"This raw and powerful book will hammer its way into your heart and haunt you. The world needs this story. And you want to read it — trust me."

— Laurie Halse Anderson, Printz Honor-Winning Author of Speak

"Chris Lynch is the best pure YA writer we have — he has the guts, he has the chops, and like his readers, he'll take a close look at anything. Inexcusable is irresistible, in its limning of the spaces between brutality and grace, between the soul and the law. Start at page one — you'll never stop."

— Bruce Brooks, Newbery Honor-Winning Author of The Moves Make the Man

"Inexcusable is a not-to-be-missed chapter in the anthropology of ritual male dating behavior. From the first phrase to the last phrase, Chris Lynch creates a character with such flawless self-deception that the reader mistakes being seduced with being stalked. In the end you become the books trophy, and you'll find your head mounted on the cover."

— Jack Gantos, Printz Honor-Winning Author of Hole In My Life

Publishers Weekly

High school senior Keir Sarafian may remind Lynch fans of Earl Pryor, the narrator of Who the Man. Though more intelligent than Earl, Keir is also an unreliable narrator, whose reporting belies to readers the unintended results of his ungainly strength and impulsive actions. As the novel opens, something horrible has happened: "The way it looks is not the way it is. Gigi Boudakian is screaming at me so fearsomely." Intervening chapters in flashback trace how Keir and Gigi, who were childhood friends, arrived at this moment, which readers soon gather is a date rape from Gigi's perspective, and a natural progression of shared intimacy from Keir's viewpoint. Lynch plunges readers into Keir's psyche in a way that makes him almost sympathetic, if frightening. On the football field earlier in the school year, Keir tackled a receiver and crippled him, but in his mind, he was only doing what he was trained to do (the opponents "were getting too comfortable. Too lazy, spoiled, entitled.... It is inexcusable"). Later in the novel, when he learns that his older sisters (he "talks about [them]... like [they were] angels") simply boycotted his graduation (not absent due to exams, as they had said), his world crumbles. With his portrait of Keir, Lynch makes it nearly impossible for readers to see the world in black-and-white terms. This book is guaranteed to prompt heated discussion. Ages 13-up. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

KLIATT

Keir, a high school senior, thinks of himself as a "good guy." So how could he possibly feel responsible when he cripples a football player on the field, earning himself the nickname "Killer"? After all, it was a perfect tackle. How could he have tormented some of the school's soccer players, kidnapping them for "a few hours of involuntary skinny-dipping," and destroyed town statues in a drunken rampage? And most of all, how could he have raped Gigi, the girl he adores, the night of their senior prom? Keir is sure he's done nothing wrong, though the wrecks he leaves in his wake indicate otherwise. This provocative tale by the author of Freewill and other YA novels would make an interesting companion piece to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, which treats rape from a teenage girl's viewpoint. Keir is a good example of an unreliable narrator, whose version of reality and sense of himself, the reader eventually comes to realize, are dangerously off base. As his sister points out, "You make things up to be what you want them to be," and his weak father lets him get away with it. Keir's spare, dramatically told cautionary tale is well worth reading. KLIATT Codes: S—Recommended for senior high school students. 2005, Simon & Schuster, Atheneum, 176p., Ages 15 to 18.
—Paula Rohrlick

KLIATT - Paula Rohrlick

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, November 2005: Keir, a high school senior, thinks of himself as a "good guy." So how could he possibly feel responsible when he cripples a football player on the field, earning himself the nickname "Killer"? After all, it was a perfect tackle. How could he have tormented some of the school's soccer players, kidnapping them for "a few hours of involuntary skinny-dipping," and destroyed town statues in a drunken rampage? And most of all, how could he have raped Gigi, the girl he adores, the night of their senior prom? Keir is sure he's done nothing wrong, though the wrecks he leaves in his wake indicate otherwise. This provocative tale by the author of Freewill and other YA novels would make an interesting companion piece to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, which treats rape from a teenage girl's viewpoint. Keir is a good example of an unreliable narrator, whose version of reality and sense of himself, the reader eventually comes to realize, are dangerously off base. As his sister points out, "You make things up to be what you want them to be," and his weak father lets him get away with it. Keir's spare, dramatically told cautionary tale is well worth reading. (An ALA Best Book for YAs and National Book Award finalist.)

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-Keir is a senior who fancies himself a "lovable rogue." So do his widowed father, his older sisters, and his classmates. He likes being liked; he just doesn't do well with involvement. Keir would never do anything to hurt anyone intentionally-or would he? When he tackles and cripples a member of an opposing football team, it's determined to be an "accident"-one that earns him the good-humored nickname, "Killer." When he and his buddies destroy a town statue, they consider it a high-spirited, funny prank. When he gets drunk, the alcohol abuse is dismissed as "silly, harmless drinks," and drugs at parties are "strictly recreational." And when he date rapes the girl he thinks he loves, at first he convinces himself that "the way it looks is not the way it is." Keir's first-person narrative chillingly exposes the rationalization process that the troubled teen goes through to persuade himself and those around him of his innocence. Characters are clearly developed through immediately post-rape chapters that alternate with flashbacks of Keir's experiences and perceptions leading up to that point. As compelling as Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (Farrar, 1999), though with a different point of view, this finely crafted and thought-provoking page-turner carefully conveys that it is simply inexcusable to whitewash wrongs, and that those responsible should (and hopefully will) pay the price.-Diane P. Tuccillo, City of Mesa Library, AZ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Lynch has hit a homerun with this provocative, important read about Keir, a self-proclaimed "good guy" headed for college on a football scholarship. With two sisters in college, Keir lives alone with his lonely, widowed father, who treats Keir more like a buddy than a son. After Keir accidentally cripples an opponent during a football game, things really go awry, especially since his victim lets him off the hook with a letter of forgiveness. With his name cleared, his peers christen him "Killer," a nickname that seems to give him license to do all sorts of unsavory things, such as hazing classmates, vandalizing a statue, trying cocaine and ultimately, date raping Gigi Boudakian. The underage drinking and recreational drug use is handled fairly cavalierly up until the stint with cocaine, but readers will still feel uneasy as the well-crafted sequence of Keir's reckless behaviors crescendos toward a disastrous end. Keir's self-delusion, irresponsibility and sense of invincibility are dangerous, sending the important message to all teens, particularly high-school heroes and their would-be victims, that some things are inexcusable. (Fiction. YA)