Ragers

by Seth Biderman

When high school senior Josh "Bernsie" Bernstein discovers his longtime crush Lisa in a sexual relationship with his soccer coach, Josh is spun into a dilemma of how—and if—to act. Meanwhile, in a parallel plot line that opens on the same Friday afternoon in 1992, womanizing teenager Julian Morales and his lifelong friend Santiago get busted smoking pot on campus, plunging the already gloomy Santiago into depression, and forcing Julian to confront his own demons. Set among the high desert mountains and juniper trees of Santa Fe, New Mexico, as a wildfire threatens the nuclear labs in nearby Los Alamos, Ragers uses fast-moving action and poignant childhood flashbacks to follow these two stories over the course of five life-changing days. The two main characters are from different backgrounds—Josh the son of professional Jewish parents from New York; Julian a Hispanic Santa Fe native whose mother abandoned him to be raised by his permissive musician father—but their stories are intimately linked by their struggles to come of age in a society that offers teens little sense of relevance or purpose.

314 pages, Paperback

Published March 31, 2017

Reviews

[Nathan Keffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ragers cuts close to the bone for readers coming from New Mexico. Its pages are filled with the smell of green chile, tequila and sex.

My only issue with the book is that it seemed too short. I flipped the last page hoping for more and wondering about some of the side stories and supporting characters curious as to where there lot fell in life after the ragers in diablo and the fires of Los Alamos.