We the Animals

Justin Torres
3.73
25,948 ratings 3,547 reviews
In this award-winning, groundbreaking debut, Justin Torres plunges us into the chaotic heart of one family, the intense bonds of three brothers, and the mythic effects of this fierce love on the people we must become. “A tremendously gifted writer whose highly personal voice should excite us in much the same way that Raymond Carver’s or Jeffrey Eugenides’s voice did when we first heard it."— The Washington Post Three brothers tear their way through childhood— smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn—he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white—and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times. Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another. From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to see the world, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and punch-in-the-stomach powerful. "We the Animals is a dark jewel of a book. It’s heartbreaking. It’s beautiful. It resembles no other book I’ve read.”—Michael Cunningham "A fiery ode to boyhood . . . A welterweight champ of a book."— NPR, Weekend Edition
Genres: FictionLGBTQueerContemporaryComing Of AgeShort StoriesLiterary FictionBook ClubNovelsAudiobook
128 Pages

Community Reviews:

5 star
6358 (25%)
4 star
9781 (38%)
3 star
6887 (27%)
2 star
2231 (9%)
1 star
691 (3%)

Readers also enjoyed

Other books by Justin Torres

Lists with this book

City of Fallen Angels
Clockwork Prince
Delirium
Best Books of 2011
2653 books • 6709 voters
Silence
Clockwork Prince
Crossed
Most Exciting Books Coming Out Fall 2011
216 books • 849 voters
The Fault in Our Stars
Mockingjay
Divergent
Best Books of the Decade: 2010s
7667 books • 13923 voters
1Q84: Books One and Two
The Marriage Plot
The Night Circus