Welcome to Litsy!

This is a pretty bleak and brutal book featuring a father and his two sons who leave Kansas for New Mexico to start a new life. The narrator, the youngest son, has lied to authorities about his mother so that she‘ll lose custody, but it turns out his father is a much bigger threat. Is this YA? Despite its adolescent narrator, the book‘s content would definitely skew mature teen.

Just picked this up on clearance at Half Price Books! Doesn‘t even look like it was read! Mostly got excited it was set in New Mexico 🌵 love the southwest! Has anyone read it?? Seems like a short and interesting read!

This book's compact size belies its impact - it's packed with devastating moments and raw emotion. It's similar to My Absolute Darling - a monstrous, charismatic father and his tortured relationship with his kids. As I often do with this sort of book, I'll call it a qualified Pick...only for those with high literary pain tolerance.

Dark. Infuriating. Sad. Well-written but the ending answers nothing for me. #litsybythenumbers #one #1 #litsybythenumbers1 #lbtn1 #audiobook

#StuffCurrentlyOntheFloor I think I‘ll stop adding books to this pile once it reaches the top of the lamp shade...what do y‘all think? 🙈🤔

A brand new book and candy #riotgrams

It was a book you wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen to the boys. I found the ending to be very confusing. Had to read the last chapter twice and still did really get the ending.

This was a bumpy, quick ride. I was a little disappointed—for the emotional investment the book demands of its reader, I felt like there wasn't much of a return. It's not a huge time commitment, though, and it has some truly shining moments.

Sheesh. This was a rough one, but so well-written. Well-written enough that I could picture the characters and many of the scenes vividly, which I really did not want to do because most of the scenes were so brutal! 😣 An undeniably great debut, though.

This was a dramatic and disturbing read. A father persuades his younger son to lie to the courts so he can leave his mother and join his brother. His father is a brutal drug addict and the story is at parts tough to read but well written and well worth finding.

An alcoholic mother and crack binging father are going through a nasty divorce, and both of their adolescent boys are caught in the middle of it all. Sad and sometimes too gut wrenching to read. It's short, blunt and never really takes a hopeful turn. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The blurb says "with the emotional core of A Little Life" which I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or a really bad thing. But either way, it's only 100 pages and crying is an excellent way to spend a Sunday afternoon, right?

Just finished my first book of the summer! This was a bit dark, though I found myself rooting very hard for the main characters. Quick read, contains mentions of physical and sexual abuse.

Checked this one out at the library today. Excited to read it 🤗

I picked this up at the library, b/c I saw @mauveandrosysky review it and we have similar taste it books. An abusive man wreaks havoc over the lives of his two sons and their mother. This a deeply unsettling book that becomes more suffocating and darker as the pages go on. It's a story about what it means to not have either parent on your side. Are you destined to fail when you're not born out of love? It's a question I still struggle to answer.

This short, claustrophobic novel about two brothers and their abusive father is one of those books you can easily read in one sitting, consumed by the mounting tension and unease.

It's a brutal story about psychological and physical abuse and the devastating toll it takes on one shattered family.

This is a great description.

This debut novel blows the lid off masculinity & it's a wonder of economical writing.

The unnamed 12-year-old boy at the heart of the tale is taken, along with his older brother, by their dad from Kansas to New Mexico to start life anew. Things do not go as planned. The story soon turns a bit dark; as the reader, I kept hoping, like the sons, that the dad would get his act together, kept holding out for a happy ending. In deceptively simple prose, this debut shows how families come undone, how broken adults shatter kids. Powerful.

I couldn't put this down. It's a tough read in an emotional sense. A story of two boys who love their father wholeheartedly and therefore are oblivious to his shortcomings, to say the least. It's about love, drug abuse, abuse, coming to terms with the truth, and a coming of age. We never know the name of the characters, so this story could be about anyone...

And here come the lies, the guilt trip, and the shaming...

😔💔 it's sad to think how many children out there in the world have experienced this and are experiencing it.

Sadly, this is true. That is how they manipulate their spouse/partner, by making them fear that the children have been taken from them and can be taken at any moment. I should know, I was once an oblivious happy child in that situation.

"My father turned us against each other--it was his method of control. And I had fallen for it again."

Abusers are experts at their craft, they know how to control and manipulate...

‼️‼️‼️

After abandoning my second audiobook of the day, I'm about to sink my teeth into this baby....

"We can let go of the past. But first we need to bury the motherfucker." (p. 17)

I'm not liking the father much...😒

Up next! 🤓📚💕

Just how I like to spend my Sunday: reading!

Book mail! I had to have Ree Drummond's new children's book, just because. I've wanted Arrowood for awhile, finally found it for a good price. One of the Boys is this month's signed book from Literati Cultura. They also send a bookmark, this one has a quote from Murakami.

This is a heartbreaking story about a 12-year-old boy and his brother who are more or less poisoned by their parents and their problems. It's an emotional rollercoaster that left an ache in my stomach the second half of the book. The writing was great. The emotions definitely were there. The heartbreak is real.

I read this book in a day and I'm not a fast reader, but I didn't want to stop. Sad and a little depressing, but achingly real.

Next up! I have heard good things so I am hopeful!

Daniel Magariel's debut, One of the Boys is a stunning novel you'll long remember. Narrated by a 12-year old boy, it's the story of how he and his brother survive when their father's drug abuse turns him physically and psychologically abusive. At time it was difficult to read, but always hard to put down. My full review here: http://www.novelvisits.com/one-boys-daniel-magariel-review/

Yikes. This is a read all at once story of a father who demands his sons' loyalty while pitting them against their mother and against each other. Rough but recommended.

I normally like to eat my lunch and read at the same and have no issue putting a book down and getting back to work. Today that was not possible! I devoured this novel and couldn't put it down until I finished it. My goodness it just draws you. Such an well written story.

A perfectly-written debut.

What I'm reading now

This short (176-page) novel is a fast, hard punch to the gut that grabs you from the first page and doesn't let go until the last...

#LitsyAtoZ #LetterO
This tiny, claustrophobic novel grips from page one and doesn't let go. Trapped in a new life with his father and older brother, our narrator must balance his father's needs and growing addictions with his desire to be admired. Tense and breathtaking, One of the Boys doesn't waste a single word in its quest to crawl inside your heart and live there.

Two boys caught in the revolving doors of love and hate with their drug-addicted father. The price the children pay to be "one of@he boys" goes from seemingly silly to paralyzingly terrifying. I read this in one setting and I feel like it will be with me for a long time. Definitely recommend for the compelling story and tightly strung prose.