Pulling the trigger was supposed to end it all…

Whether it's smoking outside the Dollar General after school or playing the Nintendo 64 on a Saturday morning, seventeen-year-old Ruben just wants to hang out with his older brother. But Roswell has other plans. Like rearranging his childhood friend’s face and making enemies out of every human being in a three-hundred-mile radius.

Ruben was never a “tough guy” to begin with. If he doesn’t want to be left behind by his brother, he’ll have to change: no more drawing cryptids, no more running from parties, no more being Ruben.

When Ruben’s frantic efforts to become someone else land him in the hospital, Roswell decides there’s only one way to protect him from the world—turn him into someone the world can’t hurt.

Less soft. More numb. Better at pretending he won’t break.

By the time Roswell realizes he’s pushed him too far, Ruben already has the gun.

A slow-burning literary suspense about the fragile hope of surviving what you come from.