Split

"Now I have to start lying. While I stare through the windshield at the building my brother lives in, I try to think up a good lie, but nothing comes to mind… my face will tell half the story. For the other half, I’ll keep my mouth shut and lie by omission. Someday I’ll fess up, tell him the whole deal, and then he can perform a lobotomy or whatever it takes. But right now, I just need Christian to open his door, nudge it wider, and let me stay."

Jace is sixteen years old when he leaves home, drives across the country from Chicago to Albuquerque, and shows up on his brother’s doorstep, where Christian and his girlfriend Mirriam are just about to celebrate their first anniversary. Over the next few weeks, Jace and his brother begin to unpack what it means to come from an abusive family. Jace enrolls at a local high school and gets a job at a nearby bookstore, while Christian tries to figure out his role as an older brother suddenly living with a little brother. Mirriam, who had no idea Jace even existed, pushes her way into Jace’s life, causing fights with both brothers, but also helping them to better understand one another. Meanwhile, Jace plots to contact his mother and get her away, while Christian worries about their father coming after them once again. But Christian doesn’t realize the secrets that Jace himself is hiding — until they get a call from their father.

This is an extraordinary novel about abuse and the effects it has on those who witness and experience it. Avasthi captures the confusion, frustration, fear, and anger which Jace experiences, as well as painting a vivid picture of those who interact with him — Christian, Mirriam, Dakota. There is no pat ending to the story — much as the reader hopes for it — and that makes it all the more realistic. A gritty, well-written debut novel. ( )

Advance copy. ( )

I read this book and waited a week to write a review that I'm incapable of writing and doing justice. This is no story, this is real life, a darker piece of real life. A man in power, a feeble mother, kids who are protective. This is a mess of a book in all the ways anyone who's been abused can resonate with and understand, and it touches that place you've been hurt.

I cannot better word this book other than it's life. It's brutal, it's not a happy ending, it's not even an ending. There is a moment of reading this where I thought it would go to bs, it would bs and heal the wounds and cover everything up with a happy ending, but it was not doing that. It was the optimism and hope we feel in life with a declined ending but one where they still carry on.

If you've ever been hurt or kicked out, or want a book that will make you feel something, I highly recommend this one. I picked it up and knew from three pages it was going to do things most books have not done to me.

I almost hope a sequel exists one day, almost. The book's so good as is, a sequel might not match up to it. ( )

Very compelling and well done. ( )

Really powerful. Would be great to read with others. It made me think a lot about abuse and what's forgivable and if people can really change. I can't even get my thoughts straight about it. It's wonderfully challenging book with characters I could relate to and have empathy for, even when I felt like I shouldn't. ( )