Bloodline

Seventeen-year-old Abram lives with his grandmother in San Antonio, Texas, after his father's death and his mother's disappearance-both mysterious events that haunt him. After several fights and school suspensions, his grandmother recruits her remaining son, good-for-nothing Uncle Claudio, to return home and be the male figure that Abram so obviously needs. It's not a perfect solution, but it's all she's got. Claudio immediately seizes upon Abram's fighting prowess and envisions for him a lucrative career as a boxer. Meanwhile, Abram's relationship with classmate Ophelia, which gradually grows from platonic to romantic, counterbalances the rougher influences of his uncle. It doesn't entirely overcome those influences, however, as Claudio enrolls Abram in a shady, dangerous fight that has tragic consequences. Jiménez's short novel (his YA debut) employs a second-person narrative style that is heavy on imagery and sensory descriptions; the result conveys simultaneously a vivid sense of immediacy and an element of reflective distance. Occasional Spanish words and phrases are incorporated into the text ("Torcido. It's the word for what your grandmother fears"). Readers are left to ponder the intersection of manhood, identity, and destiny-and perceptive ones may notice allusions and parallels to Hamlet. jonathan hunt

Seventeen-year-old Abram lives with his grandmother in Texas after his father's death and his mother's disappearance. As Abram's relationship with classmate Ophelia grows romantic, his uncle, Claudio, seizes upon Abram's fighting prowess and enrolls Abram in a shady, dangerous fight that has tragic consequences. With allusions and parallels to Hamlet, Jiménez's imagery-heavy YA debut conveys simultaneously a vivid sense of immediacy and reflective distance.