The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

Once again blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, Andrew Smith tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel’s story of his summer at a boys’ camp for tech detox is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century. Oh, and there’s also a depressed bionic reincarnated crow.
Trigger & Content Warnings:
- Rape mentioned
- Alcohol consumption
- Recreational drug use
- Starvation mentioned
- Blood depiction
- Death of a brother mentioned
- Mass murder by gun violence & poison gas recounted
- Knife violence & stabbing
- Explosions
- Physical assault mentioned
- Refugee experiences