Venomous - Softcover

Christopher Krovatin is the author of the Gravediggers series as well as the young adult novels Heavy Metal and You and Venomous. He is also a contributing writer to Revolver magazine and a lifelong devotee to the zombie genre. He lives in Brooklyn.

Grade 9 Up—A high school junior, Locke has been aware of his fits of blind rage ever since he bit the tip off a bully's nose back in elementary school. In an effort to cope with his unpredictable Jekyll-and-Hyde nature, he has even invented a name and persona for the pugnacious personality that periodically seems to seize control of him: the venom. He has been estranged from most social contact, but Randall, a recent friend, has been laid back and accepting, so much so that he invites a reluctant Locke to a party to meet his wider circle of friends, other artsy and angry outsiders in all their teen guises: punks, queers, emos, skaters, hip-hop kids, headbangers, neo-hippies, and goths. Suddenly, Locke feels both accepted by and drawn to two of the group's most troubled members: Casey, a confused and combative gay kid who shares his violent pathology, and Renee, a girl he begins to fall in love with just as he is starting to realize the scary significance of her dark past. In order for him to maintain these stormy relationships, Locke discovers that he must abandon his defense mechanism and start dealing with the fact that he and the venom are, in fact, one and the same. Revealed in first-person chapters interspersed with graphic-novel-style illustrations mirroring Locke's ongoing battle with his inner self, this is an authentically voiced story that includes sex, drugs, drinking, violence, and, ultimately, Locke's move toward maturity through self-knowledge and subsequent self-control.—Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI
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