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Loading... Devils Withinby S. F. Henson
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  jennybeast | Apr 14, 2022 |   a point of view we don't hear much from; the author has lived in the south and done research, and I thought this was well done. A slower read, because the subject is so weighty. (  ) reader1009 | Jul 3, 2021 |  ) kbranfield | Feb 3, 2020 | I greatly respect the author for taking on a topic that no one else is, and for writing from a perspective that few probably can. I typically find that female authors struggle with getting male main characters right. I think Henson has done this the best of any book I’ve read. Large jumps in time are often made in the book with varying success. Would recommend to teenage audiences. Warning of references to Neo-Nazi activities necessary. (  ) rdwhitenack | Mar 28, 2018 | no reviews | add a review
AwardsNotable Lists
Suspense.
Young Adult Fiction.
Young Adult Literature.
HTML:A 2018 William C. Morris Award Finalist Killing isn't supposed to be easy. But it is. It's the after that's hard to deal with. Nate was eight the first time he stabbed someone; he was eleven when he earned his red laces—a prize for spilling blood for "the cause." And he was fourteen when he murdered his father (and the leader of The Fort, a notorious white supremacist compound) in self-defense, landing in a treatment center while the state searched for his next of kin. Now, in the custody of an uncle he never knew existed, who wants nothing to do with him, Nate just wants to disappear. Enrolled in a new school under a false name, so no one from The Fort can find him, he struggles to forge a new life, trying to learn how to navigate a world where people of different races interact without enmity. But he can't stop awful thoughts from popping into his head, or help the way he shivers with a desire to commit violence. He wants to be different—he just doesn't know where to start. Then he meets Brandon, a person The Fort conditioned Nate to despise on sight. But Brandon's also the first person to treat him like a human instead of a monster. Brandon could never understand Nate's dark past, so Nate keeps quiet. And it works for a while. But all too soon, Nate's worlds crash together, and he must decide between his own survival and standing for what's right, even if it isn't easy. Even if society will never be able to forgive him for his sins. Like a teen American History X, S.F. Henson's Devils Within is gut-wrenching, thought-provoking, no-holds-barred look at the plague of white supremacy in contemporary American culture that may have you examining your own soul. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature American literature in English American fiction in English 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.18)
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That being said, it just didn't knock my socks off, and I have no useful critique as to why. I think some of it is Nate's absolute isolation, which made me uncomfortable. Everything about his situation seemed unnecessarily harsh, and the way that all the agencies that should have been helping him failed him was really depressing. Probably accurate, but really depressing. It's also, to be honest, a very dramatic book -- and to be fair, the stakes are high, Nate is a deeply ambivalent character, even to himself -- but there's a level of teen histrionics that I found accurate but annoying. Sorry, I know, I'm an adult, it wasn't written for me. I think perhaps I've been hitting too many improving literature sorts of books and I need to go embrace some brain candy. (