Vernon Bog Little

The novel Vernon God Little, by Australian-Mexican author D. B. C. Pierre, is a dark, sharp, and devastating satire of modern American society, media frenzy, and the judicial system. The story is set in the remote Texas town of Martirio, which is suddenly thrust into the national spotlight after a student named Jesus commits a mass shooting at their high school before taking his own life. Although he had no part in the massacre, fifteen-year-old Vernon Gregory Little—Jesus’s only friend—becomes a target overnight. Fueled by sensationalist television news and the machinations of unscrupulous opportunists, the townspeople come to view him as a monster. With his mother preoccupied solely with household appliances and her debts, and with the police and shady media manipulators closing in, Vernon is forced to flee. His journey takes him from Texas through Mexico, pursued all the while by both the police and television cameras hungry for a bloody spectacle. Written in the unique, street-smart, cynical, and intensely witty voice of its young narrator, the novel lays bare the absurdity of our contemporary obsession with fame and scandal. Vernon God Little is an energetic, provocative, and unforgettable book about innocence lost in a world that long ago traded its morality for a few minutes of media fame.