How can we make sense of our violent culture?

Rarely does a book try to make sense of our violent culture, but there is one brilliant author who has succeeded in helping young adults make sense of the raw and grotesque nature of domestic violence.

  Scowler by Daniel Kraus helps readers understand how violence in a home can escalate to the point of unbearable even as it helps readers understand how desperate teens might perform desperate acts. Billed as “Equal parts haunting and horrifying, this literary horror novel gives readers insight into the mind of a controlling homicidal man and the son who must stop him,” this novel calls attention to domestic violence in an unforgettably chilling tale of a boy whose earlier memories include snipping sewing stitches from between his mother’s fingers and toes to release her from the bed her husband has sewn her to.  Although these scenes are some of the most disturbing you are likely to read, Karen Jensen, a youth services librarian at the Betty Warmack Branch Library in Grand Prairie, Texas, said, “There are hands down some of the most disturbing scenes that I have ever read in ‘Scowler,’” she wrote, “but they moved me to compassion for our main character and his family. I think they also make you think about the cycle of abuse and violence that can happen in the lives of our young people.”

Jensen is so on target! We do need to make books like this available to the teens who need compassion and understanding and help.