(originally posted on September 28, 2008)
First time novelist Clay stakes out an ambitious purpose: retelling TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD in contemporary fashion, set in a small British town. And amazingly he just about pulls it off, fashioning a much darker, more brutal look at how one family can have such a negative impact on their neighbors, how a gawky, awkward teenage boy falling in love with the wrong girl turns his life upside down in monstrous ways, and how idealism and optimism gets quashed over and over again but is never quite completely diminished. Skunk Cunningham isn't Scout Finch but she's got a fantastic narrative voice all on her own, and after reading BROKEN, I am glad I don't have to revisit what it's like to be at the mercy of feral schoolage females.
