Charm & Strange

It’s clear early in this taut psychological tale that sixteen-year-old Andrew Winston Winters is not okay: he’s estranged from his family, withdrawn from his boarding-school classmates, and a little too curious about the ravaged body of a hiker just discovered in the nearby Vermont woods. In present-tense narration, Win eventually professes that he’s a werewolf, condemned to change at the full moon and endanger others—if he hasn’t already (did he kill the hiker?). Alternating past-tense chapters flash back to Win’s childhood as volatile Drew. Masterfully, each narrative telescopes down to the minute details of one brief but life-changing moment: a single night during an outdoor party for Win; a visit to his grandparents during his tenth summer for Drew. As the novel progresses, the carefully constructed boundaries between Win’s and Drew’s personas and memories begin to blur. Readers may guess at the terrible reality behind the unreliable narratives before Kuehn’s final reveal, but the truth Andrew has been hiding from his classmates, readers, and—most importantly—himself is shattering. In tackling brutal issues of sexual and psychological abuse (and consequent mental illness and suicide) head-on, Kuehn affirms that, while Andrew might believe he’s a werewolf, the real monster in his life is his abuser. This wrenching novel is as difficult to put down as it is to read. katie bircher