Youngblood

January 18, 2016
Written by an Iraq War veteran, this visceral novel is narrated by Jack Porter, a young army lieutenant tasked to counterinsurgency at the town of Ashuriyah 10 years after the invasion of Iraq. He is informed that he will be getting a new sergeant for his platoon, Daniel Chambers, a veteran non-com. It is quickly clear that Chambers has a different way of doing things. Porter is all about the mission and going by the book, while Chambers is all about personal survivalâadjusting the Rules of Engagement when necessary and not above planting a drop weapon when an Iraqi civilian is killed. A sort of war begins between the two men for control of the platoon. At the same time, a curious Porter begins delving into the background of Chambers's cohort, Sgt. Edgar Rios, killed in combat under mysterious circumstances. This leads him to the woman Rios loved, a sheik's daughter named Rana who he discovers is an abused woman with two young children. Porter vows to help her, even if it means defying the army brass and going so far as to perform a criminal act. Based on his own combat experience, Gallagher (Kaboom) writes knowingly about the futility of keeping the peace in Iraq, where it seems almost impossible to identify friend from foe. He imbues the struggle between Porter and Chambers with a moral heft while never reducing these two powerful characters to mere symbols of a military mission gone terribly wrong.

Starred review from November 1, 2015
A complex tale about the Iraq War, intrigue, love, and survival. Gallagher follows up on his successful first book, the memoir Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War (2010), with a smart Iraq War novel that adds something new to the genre--new genres. Gallagher subtly weaves throughout this excellent, brutal tale intrigue, a mystery, and two compelling love stories. The "suck" of war surrounds young Lt. Jack Porter, a platoon commander of 40 men, many rookie "youngbloods." They're stationed in Ashuriyah, Iraq, performing "counterinsurgency handholding bullshit" as the military prepares to withdraw from Iraq. A stark desert surrounds them, the heat looms like "holy venom." Their checkpoint base, a "desert acropolis" that overlooks the town's slums, is a mansion Saddam gave one of his generals. Porter is a sensitive leader who wants nothing more than to survive and bring his men home, to leave "having done a good thing...that actually matters." When a new, more experienced and assertive sergeant, Daniel Chambers, shows up, Porter feels threatened, his leadership challenged. This is when Gallagher's war novel morphs into a noir mystery. Intense fighting has broken out. Porter hears stories from Iraqis about Chambers having been involved in civilian killings four years ago and having helped kill a powerful sheikh's son. He learns about the disappearance of a Sgt. Rios, or Shaba, the "money man" who once saved Chambers' life; he just went missing, perhaps kidnapped. Rios was also in love with this sheikh's daughter. He wanted to marry her and live in Iraq. Porter becomes obsessed with Rios and his involvement with Chambers. Seeking more information, he's drawn deeper into the lives of the local Iraqis. It means more confrontations with Chambers. It means building new relationships that could jeopardize how well he can lead his men. A fresh twist on the Iraq War novel adds depth to this burgeoning genre.

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Starred review from January 1, 2016
In his Iraq-War memoir, Kaboom (2010), former army-captain Gallagher drew heavily on material he gathered for a widely popular blog published while he was deployed during the latter part of the U.S. occupation. Here Gallagher shapes his desert-battlefield experiences into a smartly written, first-person novel about an American officer who becomes enmeshed in an Iraqi-village mystery. With his unit holed up in a deposed general's mansion near the town of Ashuriyah, Lieutenant Jack Porter is just trying to keep the peace and ensure that his soldiers are happy in the final months before all U.S. troops return home. When an aggressive veteran sergeant joins Jack's company and threatens his command, Jack opens himself to rumors claiming that the sergeant was somehow responsible for the disappearance of a soldier who was involved with a local sheik's daughter. This launches an intrigue-filled plot. Gallagher's riveting combination of gritty military jargon, sharply drawn characters, and suspenseful story line adds up to one of the best modern war novels since Tim O'Brien's Vietnam classic, The Things They Carried (1990). Highly recommended.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2015

Never have more veterans expressed the full depth of their war experience by turning to writing, and former U.S. Army captain Gallagher (Kaboom) joins their ranks with this debut novel. Even as he anguishes over the U.S. military's cooperation with bloody warlords as it withdraws from Iraq, Lt. Jack Porter breaks all the rules to help a local sheik's daughter.

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