NOWHERE, MISSISSIPPI

Frantal and Munro spin a love story set against the backdrop of the 1990s “troubled teen” industry in this debut YA novel.

Ever since his mom died, Will Douglas has been getting into trouble. When he’s caught stealing a t-shirt at a concert, a judge sentences Will to 90 days at a Southern Baptist home for troubled boys. The institution is called Victory Ridge, and it’s located in Nowhere, Mississippi—that’s the town’s actual name, denoting a tiny settlement of trailers and dirt roads set deep in the pine forests of the Magnolia State. There Will finds himself under the heel of Brother Bennett, a sadistic man of God committed to instilling discipline in his charges through brute force. His preferred tactics are “dishin’ out licks” (beatings), and “yucks” (even worse beatings). Pretty much the only thing that Will has to keep him going are his weekly sightings of “Metallica Girl” (so-called because he sees her with the cassette sleeve of the band’s album …And Justice For All) in church. “Judging by her sullen expression and the way she tugs at her ankle-length skirt,” observes Will, “she would rather be anywhere but here, too.” Obviously, trying to spend time with Metallica Girl entails breaking all kinds of rules; normally, it would be a no-brainer, but in a place like this, getting caught sneaking around could very well mean a death sentence. The authors vividly capture Will’s sometimes vulnerable, always rebellious voice as he navigates the prison-like conditions of Victory Ridge. Here, he recounts an ill-advised fight with a boy known affectionately as Big Dumb Oaf: “A red mist falls over me. I barge past Angelo, drawing back my arm and swinging a punch toward Oaf’s sneering mouth…but it never connects. Oaf’s meaty fist reaches me first, socking me right in the eye and knocking me to the floor.” Though not as inventive or big-hearted as the similarly-premised Holes, the plot moves well while critiquing the mindless cruelty of such disciplinary settings.

A pugnacious, profane YA novel set in a Christian boys’ home.