We’ll Fly Away by Bryan Bliss

genre: young adult contemporary

Luke and Toby. That’s how it’s always been. No matter how hard things got, how horrible things were at home, ever since they were boys, Toby and Luke at least had each other. With really only themselves to count on, these two North Carolina teenagers are dead set on getting out of town and on their own as soon as possible. But senior year makes things complicated as Luke works his way to a wrestling scholarship and girls begin to make people that seemed most important suddenly take the backseat. And that’s when this story of two friends begins to turn into something else entirely. And one of them ends up on Death Row.

So many feels about this gritty story. It hurt me, in a powerful way. It made me question and guess and want to lash out and it made me cry. Told in different time periods from the point of view of different characters, it’s a piecing together book, a “how did we get here” book. It delved into complex relationships, both those very broken and those flexible enough to survive. At its heart, though, is the question: can we move forward after we’ve made a grievous choice? Is there space in this world for making things right? Mostly because of the vulnerability and complexity of the characters, I found the book readable and engaging, even with the dark subject matter. And, like I said, it did made me FEEL, but I wanted a bit more from that question about redemption. I could tell that was the point but I didn’t feel quite as much oomph as I was hoping I would, once it was all over. It is a great springboard, though, for discussions on a lot of deep topics for older teens.


Sensitivity warning: there is child abuse, teenage sex and hard language