"Dizz tate is a staggeringly talented new novelist. She digs into classic tropes and stories, yanks out the best pieces, and molds them into something wholly new. The result is Brutes, a debut that cuts through the innocence of youth and strips away its illusions, leaving behind only the raw brutality of adolescence. Centered around the disappearance of a prominent family’s troubled pre-teen girl, the story that unfolds is much larger and darker than anyone can imagine. The unease that creeps throughout the book is underscored by Tate’s narration, a collective “we” reminiscent of Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides, executed with haunting perfection. Weird, creepy, and illusive, this coming of age mystery speaks powerfully to the beauty - and horror - of girlhood."
Format Hardcover
ISBN 9781646221677
The Virgin Suicides meets The Florida Project in this wildly original debut—a coming-of-age story about the crucible of girlhood, from a writer of rare and startling talent
We would not be born out of sweetness, we were born out of rage, we felt it in our bones.
In Falls Landing, Florida—a place built of theme parks, swampy lakes, and scorched bougainvillea flowers—something sinister lurks in the deep. A gang of thirteen-year-old girls obsessively orbit around the local preacher's daughter, Sammy. She is mesmerizing, older, and in love with Eddie. But suddenly, Sammy goes missing. Where is she? Watching from a distance, they edge ever closer to discovering a dark secret about their fame-hungry town and the cruel cost of a ticket out. What they see will continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Through a darkly beautiful and brutally compelling lens, Dizz Tate captures the violence, horrors, and manic joys of girlhood. Brutes is a novel about the seemingly unbreakable bonds in the "we" of young friendship, and the moment it is broken forever.
