Payback (review)

Charley Callaghan enters junior high with a lot on his mind: he and his family have recently moved from Dublin to Vancouver, and his mom has just died from an unexpected recurrence of the cancer they thought she had beaten. His Irish accent makes him a target of some school bullies, but hard looks and a refusal to back down cause them to troll elsewhere, and they land on a quiet, well-dressed boy named Benny, who has fewer self-protective impulses. Charley wants to help Benny, but he doesn't fancy being back on the bullies' hit list himself, so he keeps quiet. When Benny then commits suicide, Charley is wracked with guilt. He takes to wandering over to Benny's house, where he meets Benny's mom and younger brother, and he and his little sister start hanging out after school, Charley trying to work up the courage to confess to Benny's mother that he didn't do enough to help her son. A violent encounter with Benny's stepfather gives Charley the chance to redeem himself by rescuing Benny's little brother from a parental kidnapping, and he finally manages to come clean to Benny's mom. Charley's emotional trajectory is convincingly portrayed; especially poignant are the imagined conversations he has with his late mom while skipping school to lie in her closet, surrounded by her scent. Because they are seen through the fog of Charley's depression and guilt, secondary characters are less well articulated, but overall this is a quietly affecting tale of grief and emotional healing.