Surrender

Book: Surrender
Author: Sonja Harnett
Audience: Teen to Adult
In a Nutshell: a good boy, a bad boy, a dog, and lots of arson

As 20-year-old Gabriel lays dying, he thinks back over his short life in the small Australian town of Mulyan: his emotionally distant/abusive parents, a horrible childhood mistake involving his severely retarded older brother, Vernon, and the wild boy Finnigan with whom he made a childhood pact. Pale, quiet Gabriel (real name Anwell) would become the good one, the angel, and Finnigan would be bad. Really bad. Throughout their childhood, Gabriel quietly allows teasing, unkindness, etc. to happen to him, but Finnigan always makes the transgressors pay later, usually by burning something important. As a series of fires, and worse, terrorize Mulyan, Gabriel knows he must take drastic action to stop Finnigan, even at the cost of his own life.

This is a beautifully written, delicate psychological thriller, if that description is possible. It does border on confusing sometimes- or most of the time, depending on how carefully you're following the jumps back and forth through the timeline. Finnigan is so wild and immoral he started really bothering me- I couldn't find much to like, even in a "love to hate 'em" kind of a way. But maybe that's just me, or maybe that was the point.
The end leaves many, many unanswered questions about what really happened- like does Finnigan really exist? Is the dog dead or alive? What's going on?? Unanswered-ness is not necessarily a bad thing, but expect to think with this one.

P.S.: Surrender is the dog's name.
P.P.S.: This book was a 2006 Printz Award finalist (in case you keep track of these things)