Combustible

by Al Riske

It’s that summer between the end of high school and the start of something else. Dean Stockton and Curt Hutton are best friends, and more often than not you can find them rowing on the Rogue River at dawn.

Together they experience something they will never be able to describe adequately. But then they won’t really need to. Not to each other. It’s that moment of swing when rowers find the rhythm and everything falls into place. The shell seems to lift right out of the water.

Enter Isabelle Smiley. She’s beautiful yet insecure, knowing yet innocent, and crazy about Curt in a way that no girl has ever been crazy about Dean. She wants Curt to choose a college closer to home than the one he and Dean have selected—and she can be persuasive.

“I’d never be able to hold out against a girl like Smiley,” Dean admits.

“Don’t say that,” Curt replies. “I told her she’d have to convince you, too.”

Everyone is conflicted in this story of friendship, lust, and life-changing choices. Only one thing seems certain to all of them: If Smiley strikes a match, Dean will catch fire.

183 pages, Paperback

Published May 16, 2021

About the author

“Al Riske … understands how to walk the tightrope of subtle emotional resonance.”
— Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of Pay It Forward, Love in the Present Tense, and Chasing Windmills, among many others.

“Riske’s characters brim with the fears, desires, and idiosyncrasies of real, complex human beings.”
— Laura Matter, Blue Mesa Review

“A hugely talented writer, Al Riske beautifully captures the nuanced behavior of relationships and the universal struggle to understand why we do what we do.”
— Rachel Canon, author of The Anniversary

Reviews

[Mark Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Combustible fits nicely into the great tradition of American coming-of-age novels. Set in the Pacific Northwest, it’s the story of two best friends—Dean and Curt—and their evolving and increasingly complicated friendship. It’s also the story of Isabelle Smiley, Curt’s girlfriend, who we sense Dean is attracted to as well. The tension and conflict in the story boils under the surface, and as the title suggests, it feels ready to erupt at any moment. I really enjoyed the book.

[Greg Bardsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Combustible, we get to enjoy everything there is to love about Al Riske's work. Tight, simple and elegant prose that cuts to the heart of the story (and its deeper essence). Friendships stretched and tested with the development of a new dynamic. Lives on the brink of transformation. Real people trying to make sense of their lives.

Pages that fly before you.

An ending you never could expect.

I loved this book.