"Set in the swampy, stifling heat of Florida, this intoxicating coming of age treasure presents a symphony of raw girlhood experiences."
With something of a Virgin Suicides vibe, Dizz Tate’s Brutes gifts a raw and mesmerising account of girlhood as it follows a clutch of thirteen-year-old Floridians.
Much of the narrative springs from a collective “We” - “We didn’t care about men, and we didn’t believe in miracles”; “We weren’t always mean. We weren’t always nice. We worked hard to surprise ourselves” – which gives this novel its uniquely powerful voice, laying bare complex bonds between friends as they navigate early teen-hood with all its obsessions, mania, longings and dreams.
At the heart of the story is a missing preacher’s daughter the girls have long obsessed over. Sammy shaved off all her hair, while “we thought of our hair like our magic trick.” While everyone goes into overdrive to find her, the girls uncover a dark secret about their town’s apparent road to fame, fortune and freedom. So many lines jab and linger (“We were not, and never would be, satisfied.” “Is everything we find beautiful fake?”), and the shift to individual narratives is slick and blisteringly powerful.
“We feel electric waves through our bones,” the collective voice choruses during one charged scene, and such is the power of this story — Brutes electrifies to the bone.
| Primary Genre | General Fiction |
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