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Rick Ward wants to go to war.

He doesn't know why. Maybe he's running from his dad, who has an uncontrollable temper. Maybe he's running from a lost love, his high-school sweetheart, who is a stranger to him now. Or maybe he's just running — to find himself.

Desperate to experience real life, Rick enlists in the army with the Charlie Rangers, a special unit in Vietnam. They infiltrate the jungle, kill with precision, and get out quickly. Rick isn't sure he can shoot anyone, but he wants to be tested, like his heroes, Hemingway and Conrad. If he can see the heart of darkness and survive, he'll be a man — and finally have something to write about.

But as Rick discovers, war isn't what anyone — either the protestors, the politicians, or the writers — say it is. It's far bigger, scarier, and more complicated than anything he could ever have imagined.

Dean Hughes captures the sights and sounds of war — and the courage of a young soldier fighting to survive.

KLIATT

AGERANGE: Ages 15 to adult.

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, January 2006: Rick, just graduated from high school in 1969, doesn t know what to do with his life, and he longs to escape from his bullying father. Despite misgivings about whether the US belongs in Vietnam, he s curious about the experience of war--maybe he could be a writer and use it as material, he thinks--and he decides to enlist. Once in the army, he opts to join the Charlie Company Rangers, a six-man unit that hunts down and kills the enemy in stealthy, dangerous and terrifying search and destroy missions. At first concerned about whether he can prove himself to be a man under fire, and still conflicted about whether it is a just war, Rick soon learns that simply staying alive overrides all other considerations. He befriends an older man nicknamed Preacher, and from him learns compassion for the Vietnamese people. Wounded, Rick returns home, experienced in ways he wishes he weren t and haunted by terrible dreams, and he tries to forge a new path for himself. This powerful tale by the author of Soldier Boys brings to mind Tim O Brien s classic fiction on Vietnam, conveying a similar sense of the visceral horror of war. This is a YA version, with no swearwords, though there are some gory, gruesome details. Hughes has done his research, and he has the lingo down pat. Readers will feel they re sweating in the jungle with Rick, heart pounding, on alert for enemy ambushes. An anti-war message comes across loud and clear, but Rick s respect for the special bond of soldiers who are willing to die for each other comes across clearly too. Reviewer: Paula Rohrlick
March 2008 (Vol. 42, No.2)