Furious Thing by Jenny Downham (review)

Downham, Jenny Furious Thing. Fickling/Scholastic, 2020 [384p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-338-54065-9 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-338-54067-3 $11.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 8-12

"Be nicer. Practice empathy. Be sorry. Calm down." That's what fifteen-year-old Lexi, prone to uncontrollable rages, tells herself as she tries to please her mother's demanding longterm boyfriend, soon to be her stepfather. John's also hard on (and cheating on) Lexi's mother, saving his softness for their daughter, Iris, who's universally adored; Lexi also more than adores John's son, Kass, who has for years been her protector and partner in escape as their parents battled. As her mother and John's wedding approaches, however, Lexi is unable to keep her anger in check, and John's need to control her grows in frightening ways. What seems initially like a book about a wayward teen turns out to be a nuanced and tough-minded book about the importance of anger, both in Lexi's family dynamic, where her outbursts draw John's punitive efforts away from her mother, and in general (John's thoughtful ex-wife tells Lexi, "A healthy girl should be furious, because it's an unfair world"). The characterizations of emotionally abusive John and Lexi's dependent, desperate mother are laceratingly credible, and even more poignant is the gradual reveal of how Kass unwittingly follows in his father's footsteps. The book collapses into wishfulness in an ending that too easily defangs the villain, but what's memorable here is the portrait of a girl struggling with restrictive messages about femininity and embracing instead a more powerful dictum: "Do your monster."