​We the Animals by Justin Torres is a novel about three brothers who live with an abusive father. The youngest, and the narrator, describes moments where they play around with their mother at the kitchen when they were young, and watch as their father digs a hole and they all go inside it, in addition to other moments. One day, the mother decides to pack up everything and the boys to try and flee the father, but as they hang around the park, the mother can’t bring herself to completely leave so they return home. We get moments of the boys throwing rocks at a neighbor’s house, and the neighbor’s son invites them into his basement where they watch gay porn. Another moment where the father takes the youngest to Niagara Falls, dangles him over the edge, and when they arrive at a museum, the father notes how pretty his son is. All of it comes to a head when the boys are older and the youngest hangs around a bus station restroom hoping to have sex with men. Eventually, as a bus driver asks him where he’s going, he is brought onto the bus where the man touches him. When the youngest arrives home however, his family has found his journal which he’s written down his fantasies. This causes his parents to take him to get institutionalized. At the end, right before they’re about to make him leave their home, his father bathes him while his mother watches, and his brothers sit outside in their truck.
 
Torres writes so succinctly and powerfully that the characters feel so real in their rendition. We get to see the collective feeling of the brothers in the beginning due to the abusiveness of their father, which showcases the brothers splintering in the end of the novel. Its lyrical quality reminds me of Ocean Vuong’s writing which felt completely heartbreaking but also true to the character’s experiences. I particularly felt that the chapter ‘Us Proper’ worked so well with the voice that Torres cultivates. The brothers are brash and violent which is a product of how they were treated by their father. I remember hearing on a Tin House podcast that because he was on a bus, he had to write one of the chapters in his head and memorize it. The novel is short, but every word felt so intentional. I think it’ll be one of those novels I’ll be returning to over and over again.
 
Final Rating: 5/5

​Blackouts by Justin Torres is a novel about a young man returning to the bedside of an older gay gentleman who is dying. It’s a story framed within the context of both a conversation as well as archival images and text that is blacked out. The discussions of the men range from the author and researcher, Jan Gay, and her work in the book Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns all the way to their own lives, their sexual encounters, and loves they experienced. In the end, the old man, Juan, begins to forget everything, and then dies in the young man’s arms one night.
 
What Torres does absolutely well here is the blurring of fiction and non-fiction—of lies and truth. Jan, the book, the studies, and some of the characters are firmly from history. However, Torres plays with us when the speaker discusses Juan and if he ever met/talked with him. Though, I don’t feel that whether Juan existed or not is what’s important, rather it was the connection the speaker and Juan had and their conversations which provided an outlet for them to digest their lives. I also found some of the novel’s framing to be interesting, particularly when they start describing their lives and memories as movie scenes. The novel feels as though we are peeking into such private moments, and I appreciate the vulnerability and humor of the characters.
 
Final Rating: 4.5/5