Boobie is a teenage pyromaniac who has killed his parents and kidnapped his baby brother with the intention of selling him to the highest bidder. Custis is an orphan who, for most of his wretched life, has been the sexual slave of middle-aged pedophile. Curl is a teenaged prostitute who has a dangerous crush on Boobie. These three miserable outcasts have formed a tenuous bond and are all on the run for Boobie’s murder. The heartbreaking struggles they experience together as a sort of nightmarish family unit will leave two of them dead, and only one left to learn what real love and trust feel like through the kindness of an elderly black man named Seldom, and his chicken Deuce. This is a hard, hard book to read. It is disturbing and graphic and strange and sad. Snowfish contains great rewards for those who can handle its horrific descriptions, but go easy on yourself if you think this sounds like something you’re not ready for yet. I’m 30-something, and I wasn’t ready for how truly sad this book is. Read this one cautiously, maybe even with a friend or parent, so you can help each other understand the terrible beauty of this story.
33 Snowfish by Adam Rapp
2007
05.04
05.04
Yeah, well, obviously this isn’t for everyone, but I found it horrifyingly compelling, devastatingly sad, wise and naive and ultimately uplifting. This is a novel for extremely discerning and mature kids who can firstly get past the street language and secondly understand that they must throw away their moral compasses for the duration of the novel. Rapp took me to a place I didn’t want to be, cut me to the bone and left me with images that will stay with me for a long time. The novel has three narrators: Custis and Curl who control the narrative and Boobie who communicates in raw, poignant drawings which are eloquent and touching. This is a remarkable novel, but not for the faint of heart