We The Animals by Justin Torres is a Novel that doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to Torres’s ability to create a compelling, and raw, account of troubled adolescence. The stories Torres presents are fiction, but the way in which the dysfunctional family in these stories develop reads almost as a memoir, highlighting key struggles of abuse in families, parental neglect, and the universal struggle of finding out who you are as you grow up. It’s a story of isolation, but also companionship. A story of living, but also a story of survival.

“God’s scattered all the clean among the dirty. You, and, me, Joel we’re nothing more than a fistful of seed that god tossed into the mud and horseshit, we’re on our own” (P.84).

By the end of the story, the unnamed narrator is an outcast in his family, in his society, and even to himself. It is this raw, emotional experience that makes the story so compelling. Characters aren’t stock characters or mouthpieces for Torres, but instead are used by Torres to show the nature of the adolescent struggle in a way that lets people who experienced isolation in their youth identify and embrace this story, despite it’s darker undertones and sometimes bleak outlook.

Though the abuse and neglect in the family is a very apparent overtone, Torres blurs this line often. Though there is an overwhelming amount of negative experiences and buse, there is surprisingly enough moments of love, and just enough that it confuses those who are reading the book.

“When they ask how old you are, and you say ‘I’m six plus one, or two, or more,’ you’ll be telling them that no matter how old you are, you are your Ma’s baby boy. And if you stay my baby boy, then I’ll always have you, and you won’t shy away from me, won’t get slick and tough, and I won’t have to harden my heart” (pp. 16-17).

It is this separation from black and white narration that makes the book much more than a simple book, but an experience, with many turning cogs that develop something more than a simple fiction; Torres instead develops an overarching experience that brings out all sorts of emotions for people who can identify with the narrator’s story.

The overall experience while reading this book is one of catharsis, as Torres manages to pull the positives from the negative, and vise-versa. This book was made for the outcasts, the outliers, and the lost. It’s a story that invites you to experience catharsis, to identify with the characters, despite the ugly hidden within many of them. It most effectively does this with the unnamed narrator. If you are a person who’s ever felt outcast by your peers, by your parents, or by your siblings, this is a must-read. It is such a strong, and emotional, an experience that you will walk away changed.