DAWN

Dawn Bundy wants to kill God. The 15-year-old knows it’s an impossible task, but she blames him for her ex-con, drug-dealing father’s final addiction to religion, his inexcusable act that forced part of her mind to retreat in a cave and his disappearance two years ago. She also hides her alcoholic mother, possible attraction to girls and her father’s duffel bag full of money and a gun behind baggy, shapeless clothes and a dingy apartment, describing her life in an irreverent, edgy, first-person narration laced with dark humor and guiding lyrics from ’80s band The Jesus and Mary Chain. Questions about religion and sexuality turn to mystery when the two most popular girls at high school take a sudden interest in socially awkward Dawn and a delivery van appears to be following her. Complete answers to these questions are sacrificed to create a rushed, gut-wrenching conclusion sure to shock readers. Even when Brooks is not at his best, however, he still produces compelling fiction that will leave teens clamoring for his previous titles. (Mystery. YA)