Save Yourself
A Novel
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3.6 • 30 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A gripping novel full of suspense and pathos that Dennis Lehane calls an "electrifying, tomahawk missile of a thriller."
Patrick Cusimano’s father killed a boy while driving drunk. Now Patrick is working at a grubby convenience store, and he and his brother, Mike, are the town pariahs. Caro, Mike’s girlfriend, is running from her own painful past, with no idea what she’s running toward. Layla Elshere is a goth teenager who befriends Patrick for reasons he doesn’t understand and doesn’t trust. And Layla’s little sister, Verna, tortured by her classmates, finds unlikely solace with Layla’s dark tribe of outcasts.
As their fates become entwined, everyone is set down a terrifying and twisted path—leading them all toward a collision where loyalties will be betrayed, fears exposed, and lives shattered.
Now with Extra Libris material, including recommended reading and bonus content
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A sharp portrait of five people damaged by their childhood elevates Braffet's captivating, realistically creepy third novel, set in Ratchetsburg, Pa. Mike Cusimano blames his brother, Patrick, for the fact that their father, John, was sent to prison for the hit-and-run death of a child while in an alcoholic haze. Mike believes that if Patrick hadn't called the police, their father would never have been arrested, despite the damaged, bloody car. The residents of Ratchetsburg also fault the brothers for waiting 19 hours before calling the police. Mike's girlfriend, Caro, who fled from her bipolar mother when she was 16, lives with the brothers, but is increasingly attracted to Patrick. Meanwhile, sisters Layla and Verna Elshere are outcasts at their high school, ostracized because their father, Jeff, "a home church leader," waged a high-profile campaign against sex education. Layla, who has retreated into the goth world, pulls Verna with her, along with Patrick, into an even darker, violent place. Braffet (Last Seen Leaving) uses graceful prose, astute dialogue, and vivid characters to carry the plot to an unexpected and believable finale.
Customer Reviews
Too much crazy
Reads more like a psychiatric research project. So not my type of novel that I wouldn't even finish reading. In my entire life, this is only the third book I did not complete. The characters are all sickos. Oh, and the references to a the Pittsburgh area peaked my interest because I lived near Cranberry and Evans City, as well as the city itself. Uhm. There is no Rathetsburg in Pittsburgh. Stick to the facts!