BAY'S END by Edward Lorn

Bay's End falls right in line with many other great coming-of-age novels that I've read, like IT, The Body, The Accidental Siren, and Boy's Life, where we witness a boy forced to grow up fast during the most important summer of his life. The boy in question here is Trey Franklin, who, later in life, is trying to exorcise his demons by recalling the summer as a kid when he met his best friend, fell in love, and lit a cherry bomb in a policeman's car, setting off a deadly chain reaction in the small town of Bay's End.

This was Lorn's debut novel and it's an impressive one. It moves at a good pace, the characters jump right off the page, and the prose is tight. And I love how the author takes his time to lull you into the comfortable setting of the story, bathing you in the innocent freedom of adolescence, so that when the dark shit hits the fan, it's surprisingly brutal and wicked. This definitely isn't for the faint of heart or for people not willing to explore humanity's pitch black dark side, especially in the type of people you encounter everyday. Every piece of work I've read from Edward Lorn has been worth it and he is proving to be pretty dependable. I'll pick up any of his work that's released. 

GRADE: A-