At age sixteen, Jace gets kicked outof the house for trying to protect his mom from their abusive father/husband.The teen drives straight from Chicago to Albuquerque to find the 22-year-oldbrother who walked out five years earlier. Their reunion is an awkward dancefilled with accusations and suspicion. But they negotiate an arrangement thatallows Jace to rebuild his life. As the story unfolds, those around Jacerealize he’s more like his father than he wants to admit. He wrestles to escapethe violence he has known, both at the hands of his dad and with his own self,and the tortuous process makes for a melancholy work.

The author, Swati Avasthi, is a newkid on the writing block. I heard about her from the Calvin Festival speakers’list, and informed Santa Claus, who dropped her book in my stocking this year. Avasthi’swork is a gritty story that includes realistic dialogue and presents complex innerturmoil believably. Split is writtenfor an older YA audience, targeted for sixteen- to eighteen-year-olds, and it includesmature themes, including sex (not in detail) and violence (in detail), and thesort of profanity you might expect to hear from abusers.