Save Yourself: A Novel
Kelly Braffet
Language: English
Pages: 336
ISBN: 0385347367
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A gripping novel full of suspense and pathos that Dennis Lehane calls an "electrifying, tomahawk missile of a thriller."
Patrick Cusimano’s father killed a boy while driving drunk. Now Patrick is working at a grubby convenience store, and he and his brother, Mike, are the town pariahs. Caro, Mike’s girlfriend, is running from her own painful past, with no idea what she’s running toward. Layla Elshere is a goth teenager who befriends Patrick for reasons he doesn’t understand and doesn’t trust. And Layla’s little sister, Verna, tortured by her classmates, finds unlikely solace with Layla’s dark tribe of outcasts.
As their fates become entwined, everyone is set down a terrifying and twisted path—leading them all toward a collision where loyalties will be betrayed, fears exposed, and lives shattered.
Now with Extra Libris material, including recommended reading and bonus content
that she was not the danger here. What had he done, Patrick thought miserably; what had he gotten them into? He wanted the others to be somewhere else. He wanted Caro to be somewhere else, somewhere safe; away from Layla’s terrified little sister, away from the psycho, away from him. “Shut up, Mike,” he said. “Verna,” the psycho said. In his voice Patrick heard warning, encouragement, and command, and understood that it didn’t really matter what he wanted. The girl had the gun but the psycho
special-order them that way. “Anyway, you didn’t exactly make the best first impression.” “So it was the worship group thing. I would have had to tell you eventually, you know. I thought it would be weirder if I waited, like we were friends under false pretenses.” “It was plenty weird the way you did it, actually. And we’re not friends. Friends have something in common.” “Like a fetish?” “I was thinking more along the lines of school or work.” “Is that where you met that girl from the store?
said. “I don’t think that’s on the immediate horizon.” She shrugged: a tiny gesture, just the barest twitch of her shoulder, as if the issue didn’t really matter. “I used to imagine you, sitting in that house for all those hours, knowing that car was there. My dad and all his acolytes act like they’d know exactly what to do and exactly when to do it. Like they’re so infallible, like every choice they make is blessed by heaven and they’re never, ever selfish.” She sounded bitter. “Which is a crock
into the space than absolutely necessary. For a moment, Patrick seriously considered just loading the boxes into Mike’s truck and driving them to the dump, except that he’d have to actually drive the truck to get it there. Also, they’d talked about that last night, and Mike didn’t want to do it. “He’s not dead,” Mike had said. Caro wasn’t there, which made it easier to have this conversation. After the fight they’d had on the porch her mere presence made Patrick feel like a surly teenager. “He
He grabbed something out of the box, hardly aware of what it was but listening keenly for the sound of her boots on the concrete. When it came he glanced up, nonchalant, as if he wasn’t rattled at all. “Doing another drive-by?” he said. “I was in the neighborhood.” Layla’s black jeans looked like they’d been painted on and a crimson bra strap peeked out of the wide collar of her shirt, which was also not exactly what you’d call loose. He hadn’t seen her since she’d dropped him off on Monday