One of the Boys

Starred review from January 23, 2017
The unnamed boys of the title of Daniel Magariel’s spare and piercing debut novel are the 12-year-old narrator, his older brother, and their father. The trio are headed from Kansas to New Mexico to begin a new life after a brutal divorce and custody battle referred to by the father as “the war.” The narrator, complicit in lying about his mother’s negligence so his father could gain custody, at first treats his new life like the adventure he was promised that it would be. But when his father’s violent tendencies and severe drug addiction become increasingly apparent, the narrator finally begins to make sense of the divorce and the true source of the family’s demise. The urgent present action of the novel—in which the brothers adapt to their new life while tiptoeing around their erratic and largely absent father—is combined with flashbacks portraying life before the family’s collapse, ultimately creating a stunning and tragic portrait of both the joys and limitations of love. Agent: Bill Clegg, the Clegg Agency.

Narrator Gibson Frazier's pensive tone conveys a subtly tragic atmosphere that fits the somber events of Mageriel's story. A father and his two children move from Kansas to New Mexico after a custody fight. While the children attempt to establish their new lives, their father declines, falling into drug use as well as physical and emotional abuse. Throughout the audiobook, listeners will be anchored by Frazier's performance. He unflinchingly conveys the story's most difficult passages while finding the right level of thoughtful nuance. For example, in one scene a child sustains physical injury in order to deceive child protective services. Through it all, the father admonishes his youngest son to "be one of the boys." S.P.C. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

July 1, 2017

At just three and a half hours, Magariel's debut novel should be a quick listen--time-wise, that's obviously true--but be warned: this affecting, hypnotic tragedy will linger and haunt long after. Narrator Gibson Frazier--pitch-perfect in his characterization of the two abused brothers--is especially chilling as the father who can go from buoyant to snarling without warning. In the tumultuous wake of acrimonious family disintegration, the father takes his two sons--the younger just 12, who's been coerced into being "one of the boys" by rejecting his mother--from their Kansas home and relocates to New Mexico: "We'll all be kids again," the father promises. The brothers adapt, both proving especially--talented on the basketball court. Their father, however, spirals out of control: his cigars are replaced by more debilitating substances, his hands (and almost anything they touch) become weapons, his mind and heart increasingly incapacitated. Trapped and desperate, the brothers know they won't survive--but escape is a formidably daunting risk. VERDICT Precise, riveting, incandescent, Boys belongs on multiple shelves, in multiple formats.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.