Voracious

We The Animals by Justin Torres

"We wanted more.  We knocked the butt ends of our forks against the table, tapped our spoons against our empty bowls; we were hungry.  We wanted more volume, more riots.  We turned up the knob on our TV until our ears ached with the shouts of angry men.  We wanted more music on the radio; we wanted beats; we wanted rock.  We wanted muscles on our skinny arms.  We had bird bones, hollow and light, and we wanted more density, more weight.  We were six snatching hands, six stomping feet; we were brothers, boys, three little kings locked in a feud for more."

This sliver of a book sinks its fangs into the meat of family love, lust and hate; the brazen wonderment of a child's mind, and the uwieldly emotional and physical transformation into adulthood.  Torres' first novel is redolent of his own experience with two brothers who exhibit a continuous cycle of fierce love, cruelty and ultimate self-sacrifice for each other.  Beautifully written, vivacious, vibrant; this book is made to be eaten in one sitting.