The Damage

Family: We love ‘em, but we don’t choose ‘em. Like Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones, we do all the extreme things in the name of family. Messy, dramatic, loving, ride or die... we’re all “that family.” No one knows what goes on behind those closed doors across the street, but it’s not that different from what’s happening behind yours and mine: duh-RAMA. And there’s plenty of duh-RAMA in Caitlin Wahrer’s The Damage.

College student Nick Hall plans to meet up with his new crush one night and dude is a no-show. Instead, the worst happens: Nick is sexually assaulted and lands in the hospital. His overprotective big brother Tony wants revenge. A cooler head prevails in his wife Julia, who doesn’t want to bring more problems to the family and aims for a... quieter solution. Detective Rice, assigned to Nick’s case, seems like he understands, but how much will he look past once he learns the truth about what really happened that night between Nick and his attacker?

The Damage is stuffed with dread and honor, liars and secrets. The story makes you want to scream at the page, then hold your breath and hope for the best. You will shake your head and say, “These people crazy,” and then nod, because these people can easily be your kin. Screwed-up. Morally confused. Duplicitous and charming. Just like the Lannisters. Yum!

Tony has always looked out for his younger brother, Nick. So when he's called to a hospital bed where Nick is lying battered and bruised after a violent sexual assault, his protective instincts flare, and a white-hot rage begins to build.

As a small-town New England lawyer, Tony's wife, Julia, has cases involving kids all the time. When Detective Rice gets assigned to this one, Julia feels they're in good hands. Especially because she senses that Rice, too, understands how things can quickly get complicated. Very complicated.

After all, one moment Nick was having a drink with a handsome stranger; the next, he was at the center of an investigation threatening to tear not only him, but his entire family, apart. And now his attacker, out on bail, is disputing Nick's version of what happened.

As Julia tries to help her brother-in-law, she sees Tony's desire for revenge, to fix things for Nick, getting out of control. Tony is starting to scare her. And before long, she finds herself asking: does she really know what her husband is capable of? Or of what she herself is?