Winged Creatures

November 12, 2007
The survivors of a gun massacre struggle with the aftermath in Freirich’s stark, impressive debut. After a gunman walks into Carby’s, a fast food chain restaurant along a Michigan highway, and kills two people before turning the gun on himself, a cross-section of society, including two teenagers, a driving instructor and a single mother emerge as survivors; their stories and viewpoints weave together for a tightly knit ensemble drama. Teenage Anne begins proselytizing religion after witnessing her father’s death at Carby’s, while her best friend, Jimmy—also a witness to the shooting—becomes mute after Anne makes him swear to not talk about her father. Driving instructor Charlie, wounded but alive, heads off to Vegas to test the luck that saved his life. Carla, a Carby’s waitress and mother of an infant son, loses her grip on motherhood as she fixates on Bruce Laraby, an ER doctor who missed the carnage by moments. Bruce, meanwhile, has deep doubts about his abilities to heal, revealed through increasingly macabre actions involving his wife. Psychologist Ron Abler, charged with helping victims of the violence, finds no one wants his help. While emotionally charged, the narrative isn’t weighed down with sentiment as the characters search for, but don’t necessarily find, closure.

April 1, 2008
Adult/High School-The crazed gunman who opens fire at a fast food restaurant is the catalyst that turns the psychic wounds of five people into chasms of PTSD. Bruce Laraby, an ER physician mourning the recent loss of his father, a highly respected doctor, left Carbys moments before the shooting. He treats the victims, but when he fails to save one of them, self-doubt sets in. Teens Anne and Jimmy share a booth with her father and see him gunned down. The mans lack of heroism throws her into a frenzy of evangelical behavior, building her father into an icon. Jimmy retreats into a silence that is enhanced by his bullying father, who refuses psychological attention for his son. Charlie is buckling under the pressure to make his business a success and to provide for his young family. While standing in line at Carbys, he is grazed in the head by a bullet. In a daze, he discharges himself from the ER and drives to a casino, where he indulges his gambling addiction. Waitress Carla is trying to support herself and her son on her meager wages. Unhurt physically, she comes to the ER several times with her child, claiming cold symptoms, but she is more interested in seeing the young doctor as the violence triggered in her an awareness of her profound loneliness. Freirich neither characterizes the gunman nor analyzes his motivation. Readers will wonder what fissure in his life exploded into such a violent act. Unfortunately, school and public shootings continue to erupt on an all-too-regular basis, making "Winged Creatures" a relevant read."Paula Decker, Charter Oak High School, Covina, CA"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2007
A lone gunman enters a fast-food diner, kills two patrons, and then turns the gun on himself. From that depressingly familiar scenario, first-novelist and veteran screenwriter Freirich spins a highly emotional story of how the survivors deal with the tragedy. Two teens make a pact to keep silent about the way the incident played out, with one turning to God while the other falls mute. A thrifty driver?s-ed instructor, drawn to the diner by a coupon, goes on a gambling binge; the restaurant cashier finds it increasingly difficult to care for her infant son; and the ER doctor who failed to save the gunshot victims plays a dangerous game with his wife's meds. Meanwhile, a trauma counselor patiently and persistently tries to help, while his clients just as adamantly resist. As the narrative flashes between the surviors? desperate attempts to cope and the fateful events of that day, Freirich employs a hyper, pop-culture-obsessed narrative voice to home in on the fleeting nature of existence. Soon to be made into a film, which will raise its visibility, this well-crafted debut packs an emotional wallop.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)