Blood Family

March 6, 2017
When police enter the squalid apartment of petty criminal Bryce Harris, they discover seven-year-old Eddie and his catatonic mother. Taken into custody, Eddie leaves the apartment for the first time in years. Despite loving foster parents and, later, a supportive adoptive family, Eddie—now Edward—struggles to hide the damage done by years of abuse and neglect, even as he tries to present a front of normalcy. Selected to assist in an anthropologist’s demonstration of age-progression software during a school trip, Edward, now 15, is horrified to see Harris’s face staring back at him. The realization that Harris was his father sends Edward spiraling out of control. Could he become the same inhuman monster his father was? Rotating among the perspectives of Edward and various people in his life (neighbors, social workers, foster parents, etc.), Fine (The Road of Bones) movingly traces Edward’s long struggle to cope with a world he was ill prepared to enter. The realistic and varied viewpoints of the many characters she introduce will keep readers fully invested in a story that’s tragic but not hopeless. Ages 14–up.

Starred review from January 15, 2017
By the time he's 7, Eddie and his mother have been locked in an apartment in the north of England by abusive drunk Bryce Harris for four years.After a neighbor spots him through a window, the police free them: a pale, terrified white boy and his shell of a mother. Through gentle care from foster parents and, eventually, adoptive parents, he starts feeling safe. Thanks to a healthy start in life and videotapes of a Mr. Rogers-type children's show he played repeatedly while he was captive, he seems to transcend his experiences, but he has large social and intellectual gaps, which make him a little odd to others. He can seem fine, then something will throw him into primal terror, and he'll have to work hard to get back on solid footing. During a school trip as a teenager, he sees himself digitally aged into his abuser--Harris--and he's into a spiral that endangers both his good life and his very sense of self. Fine takes Eddie from childhood into his teens, carefully developing each new relationship. Particularly well realized is the love between Eddie and his adoptive sister, who can become furious at each other without threatening their bedrock bond. Fine's smart, emotional prose has an unmistakable English rhythm. Alternating narration among Eddie and the many adults in his new life, Fine echoes techniques from the best film documentaries. A powerhouse of a story about a boy who survives. (Fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-From the ages of four to seven, Edward lives in an abusive situation with his mother and her hard-drinking partner, Harris. One day, while Harris beats Edward's mother senseless, an elderly neighbor calls the authorities. The severe beatings his mother endured have resulted in permanent brain damage, and she is sent to an institution. Edward spends time with a kind foster family before his adoption by the Steads. The adjustment to a normal life does not happen quickly. On a school field trip to a science museum, Edward is chosen to be aged up by a computer to show what he will look like as an adult. To his shock, he discovers that he looks just like his mother's abusive partner and that Harris is his biological father. This leads to a downward spiral of drugs and drinking as Edward realizes that he, too, has the potential to become a monster. In this riveting tale of nurture vs. nature, the complexities of family, identity, and the lasting impact of abuse are explored. Edward is a well-rounded character who is finally saved by the love of his adopted family and his own resilience. Told from multiple perspectives, the novel is at times quite dark and is somewhat reminiscent of Melvin Burgess's Smack. VERDICT A brutal and hopeful book that deals with addiction, choices, influences, and inherited traits that should find a home in most YA collections.-Janet Hilbun, University of North Texas, Denton

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.