Exclusive Cover Reveal + Excerpt: Andrew Joseph White’s Queer Appalachian Thriller Compound Fracture

If you’re a fan of boundary-pushing YA fiction and haven’t checked out author Andrew Joseph White yet, consider this your semi-annual reminder to fix your life immediately. From the apocalyptic horror story Hell Followed With Us to the haunting ghost tale The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, his works are filled with difficult truths, righteous fury, and complex queer characters. With his third novel, Compound Fracture, White swerves yet again, leaving behind bloody dystopia and Victorian spiritualism to tell the contemporary story of an autistic trans teen, the generational struggles of the rural poor, and those who unabashedly exploit them.

It follows the story of Miles, a sixteen-year-old socialist who discovers evidence that may help end the generational blood feud that’s been plaguing their small town. But not without violence, murder, and more than a few ghosts. Told with White’s signature visceral style, the story is deeply and unapologetically political, targeted at readers who are ready to fight against the systemic failures and challenges of our world and push for much-needed change. 

Here’s how the publisher describes the story. 

On the night Miles Abernathy—sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian—comes out as trans to his parents, he sneaks off to a party, carrying evidence that may finally turn the tide of the blood feud plaguing Twist Creek: Photos that prove the county’s Sheriff Davies was responsible for the so-called “accident” that injured his dad, killed others, and crushed their grassroots efforts to unseat him.

The feud began a hundred years ago when Miles’s great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, incited a miners’ rebellion that ended with a public execution at the hands of law enforcement. Now, Miles becomes the feud’s latest victim as the sheriff’s son and his friends sniff out the evidence, follow him through the woods, and beat him nearly to death. 

In the hospital, the ghost of a soot-covered man hovers over Miles’s bedside while Sheriff Davies threatens Miles into silence. But when Miles accidentally kills one of the boys who hurt him, he learns of other folks in Twist Creek who want out from under the sheriff’s heel. To free their families from this cycle of cruelty, they’re willing to put everything on the line—is Miles?

Compound Fracture won’t hit shelves until September 3, 2024. but thanks to the lovely folks at Peachtree Teen, we’ve got an exclusive first look at its disturbing cover—and an excerpt from the third chapter of the story itself! 

The cover artist is Evangeline Gallagher and Lily Steele is the lead designer. 

THREE

 Freshman year, Noah Davies and his friends—Eddie Ruckle and Paul Miller—killed Nancy Adams’s dog because Noah asked her to homecoming and, wouldn’t you know it, the bitch said no.

Eddie filmed it the same way he filmed his little stepsister in the shower that one time: breathing hard, struggling to keep the subject in frame. Noah had a Milk-Bone in one hand and a hunting knife in the other. Paul held the dog down while it screamed. And the morning Nancy found the corpse on her front porch, you could hear her clear across the holler. I thought it was a cougar, or another car crash. For a moment, eating breakfast hunched over the kitchen sink, I could have been convinced the world was ending.

The video got posted wherever it’d do the most collateral damage. Facebook, forums, group chats. The kids in Twist Creek County have a fight-or-flight response to the sound of shoes squeaking on wet grass. As for Nancy, she left town the next week. Rumor says Noah cornered her in a bathroom, said he’d do the same to her if she didn’t shape up, and she decided running was a better option.

That’s how it goes around here. Eddie is a wet-rat-looking son of a bitch, a bestgore.com fanboy if I’ve ever seen one. Paul never says much, always hangs back, but his family runs a wild game processing business that’ll take any animal out of season as long as you pay the right price. Then Noah—well, Noah’s gonna be a cop when he graduates. Get elected sheriff when his dad can’t keep up the gig, because that’s how it works.

I remember, distantly, that Twist Creek County don’t got ambulances no more. You gotta call EMTs down from Maryland these days.

“For what it’s worth,” Noah says, stepping towards us and fully out of the distant light of the bonfire, “y’all make a cute couple.”

“We’re not—” I start.

Cooper interrupts. “What do you want?”

It ain’t biologically possible, but I swear Noah’s eyes catch the moonlight and shine like a coyote. He’s grinning and showing all this teeth. “Thought I heard something, so figured I’d check up on everybody.” Noah gestures at Cooper. Eddie and Paul follow his finger, two pairs of eyes snapping into place. “What’s that you got there?”

Cooper puts the photocopies in his pocket. “Some old homework. Was gonna burn it.” Good move. We can afford to lose one if it means avoiding suspicion. “Got distracted is all.”

For some reason, Eddie finds this hilarious. “By Abernathy? Really?” He lurches forward, peering over Noah’s shoulder. “Nothing much at if you ask me. Those ain’t tits, those are mosquito bites.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Cooper says.

I don’t like when Eddie looks at me. Like he’s trying to find the best place to split me open, like I’m that dog. Or at least, he’s looking for the best angle to watch from.

“All right boys, all right,” Noah says. “No need for this. Just doing my rounds, not trying to start fights.” Rounds, like he’s already a cop. He’s always done this; sticking his nose where it don’t belong, hissing like a snake in a burrow. Eddie groans. Paul says nothing. He ain’t even paying attention to us, instead looking into the woods, the sort of thing Mamaw and Papaw told me never to do around here. Noah continues: “Glad to hear you’re good, O’Brien. Abernathy? You good?”

Stop talking to me. “I’m good.”

Does he feel the weight of it every time we cross paths? A hundred years of bloodshed? Dad, left to bleed out on the side of the road. Papaw’s brother shot dead in his truck forty years ago and Papaw tracking down Davies’s uncle to do the same. My great-grandmother Lucille locking her daddy’s killer in the old post office and burning it down. The railroad spike through Saint Abernathy’s mouth. 

Does he feel it too, or is this all some game to him?

“I was, uh,” I say, “about to head out.”

Noah says, “Wait. Before you do.” He clicks his tongue to make sure my attention is solidly on him, but how could it be anywhere else? “I heard Mr. Abernathy swung by town hall a few days ago. Asked some questions. Any clue why?”

I have the sudden urge to vomit, but what comes out is, “No idea. Tax bill, probably.”

Noah hums. “Shame y’all are so behind on those.”

“Yeah, well, the accident kinda put us out an income, so.” That’s only half a lie—Uncle Rodney has Dad working under the table at the garage, but it barely covers groceries. These days it’s mainly Mom at the nursing home and my dishwashing gig at Big Kelly’s. “Can only do so much.”

Noah nods as if in sympathy. “It’ll do that. Get on, then. And make it quick. Don’t want a little girl in the woods alone after dark”

Little girl. It stings.

“Want me to come with you?” Cooper asks.

I glance between Cooper and the boys. I don’t want to be alone, but I also don’t want Noah to think we’re doing anything we shouldn’t. “I’ll be fine.”

“Be safe,” Eddie giggles, giving me a little wave.

Cooper swallows hard. He don’t like this. I don’t like it either, but I force a smile and tap my pocket. Think about the photos, O’Brien. Show your dad. It’s been five years since our parents tried to save Twist Creek County, I know, but five years is enough time to do it better this go-round.

Just let me get back home in one piece—and past my parents, because lord knows if they find out I ran into Noah Davies at a late-night party, I’m in deep shit.

Excerpt from Compound Fracture / Text copyright © 2024 by Andrew Joseph White. Reproduced by permission from Peachtree Publishing Company Inc.

Compound Fracture will hit shelves on September 3, but you can pre-order it right now. 

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Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB