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    Youngblood
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    Youngblood
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    Youngblood
    Ebook415 pages4 hours

    Youngblood

    By Matt Gallagher

    4/5

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    Unavailable in your country

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    About this ebook

    The US military is preparing to withdraw from Iraq but newly minted lieutenant Jack Porter is struggling to accept how it is happening. Day after day, Jack tries to assert his leadership in the sweltering, dreary atmosphere of Ashuriyah. But his world is disrupted by the arrival of veteran sergeant Daniel Chambers, whose aggressive style threatens to undermine the fragile peace that the troops have worked so hard to establish.

    Pulling readers into the captivating immediacy of a conflict that cans shift from drudgery to devastation at any moment, Youngblood provides a startling new dimension to both the moral complexity of war and its psychological toll.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster UK
    Release dateSep 8, 2016
    ISBN9781471159107
    Unavailable
    Youngblood
    Author

    Matt Gallagher

    Matt Gallagher is a US Army veteran and the author of four books, including the novels Youngblood and Daybreak. His work has appeared in Esquire, ESPN, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and Wired, among other places. A graduate of Wake Forest and Columbia, he is the recipient of the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Fellowship, a Sewanee Writers’ Conference Fellowship, and was selected as the 2022 Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum Writer-in-Residence. He lives with his family in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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    Reviews for Youngblood

    4/5

    18 ratings5 reviews

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    • 3/5
      While this was not *my* book, Youngblood was an interesting read. I think I was looking for more in-the-field military content, without the novelization (the romance, etc). Some scenes were tense, others a little vague. I did, however, enjoy Gallagher's voice throughout. I will certainly pick up Kaboom, another Gallagher title, that looks more in line with the book I was anticipating.
    • 5/5
      Have you ever came across a book that when you want to write a review no words are sufficient enough? This was a well written book and for someone who does not like reading any books about war, I was drawn into this story. Can't wait to read more from this author. I won this book in a giveaway on Goodreads.
    • 5/5
      Matt Gallagher's first novel, YOUNGBLOOD, is, simply stated, one HELLuva good read! Its compelling plot and complex characters kept me turning pages long past my usual bedtime.I have by now read at least a couple dozen books to come out of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but this one is unique. It's not just the usual coming-of-age, baptism-of-fire narrative you usually see in these books, although there is certainly plenty of that. But Gallagher also skillfully manages to merge that theme with such disparate elements as mystery-thriller and urban legend, all with an Iraqi twist. Gallagher's protagonist-narrator, Army ROTC Lieutenant Jack Porter, at just twenty-four, certainly fits the title - young, untested, new to the war and trying desperately to understand the culture and people of Iraq. And trying to live up to the example set by his older brother, a much decorated Marine officer. As leader of an Army Stryker platoon, he takes his mission seriously, and also feels the awesome responsibility of keeping his men - more 'youngbloods' - alive and whole, a task that is, in reality, nigh impossible in a volatile area like Ashuriyah. Then along comes SSG Daniel Chambers, a combat-hardened veteran, who poses a challenge to Porter's authority, but also brings with him something far darker: rumors of flagrant violations of the rules of engagement during his previous tours. Tales of murders of innocent civilians swept under the rug. And, most tantalizing of all, a shadowy story of a forbidden love affair between an influential Sheikh's daughter and Chambers's best friend, SGT Elijah Rios. An urban legend had grown up around Rios, aka "Shaba" (Arabic for 'young, vital, beautiful'), who came from a poverty-stricken family in Texas - that he had, 'gone native,' somehow taught himself Arabic, and had intended to stay in Iraq and marry the beautiful Rana. But Rios was mysteriously killed in a night fire fight, his body never recovered. LT Porter, while caught up in the complexities of command and war, and struggling with conflicting feelings toward Chambers and the man's growing influence with the 'youngbloods' of the platoon, searches old records for incriminating information about Chambers, which leads him to a meeting with Rana. And of course he falls in love with her. And oh yeah, he has a price on his head too - a fatwah.So, no spoilers, but what all have we got here? Finely-wrought, many-sided characters; a war story replete with IEDs, fire fights and snipers, gory deaths and mutilations; tribal betrayals and intrigue; a mystery-suspense thriller; and a love story. All this and more. I see various influences at work here - Hemingway and Heller, maybe some O'Brien and Caputo. But influences aside, with this impressive debut, young Mr. Gallagher has established himself as a unique voice in the literature of war. I will shelve YOUNGBLOOD with the books of his veteran peers, authors like Phil Klay, Benjamin Busch, Jesse Goolsby, Matthew Hefti, Brian Turner, Brian Castner, and others. Very highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      My thoughts:A raw gritty and skillfully written novel that captures the complex harsh realities of the counterinsurgency tactics employed in Iraq. The sharply drawn characters illustrate the fragile and ever-changing reality of allies, partners, and adversaries and just what is the truth at a moment. I was captivated by the life-and-death experiences that needed to be made on a moment’s notice – do you follow the textbook technique, rely on the more experienced soldiers in the unit, and/or just go with your instinct at the moment. While the physical scars show the tragedy of the violence, this book delves more into the psychological scars as history, economics, and humanity plague the participants in this war. Besides dealing with the current military orders, there is an intriguing murder/romance mystery clamoring to be solved. As I am not familiar with the military terms/common slang used in the Iraqi War, I would have liked a glossary included so could easily get the definition/nuances of what was being said. A richly rewarding storyline that is a nail-biting read from the first page to the last. I recommend this book to anyone interested in American foreign policy and wants a better understanding what a modern war is all about. “There was a ritual to donning armor, deliberate and purposeful, like the warriors of old dressing for battle, but taking it off always seemed an exercise in frenzy….I’d shed sixty pounds of gear in ten or so seconds. Once I bent over and loosened the laces of my boots, I felt human again.”“Then I thought about how I wasn’t really the person I presented to the soldiers, either. There were parts I hid. Parts I exaggerated.”“Yesterday was the result of a half-assed strategy set by old men in suits do don’t have a f**** clue. They hear ‘counterinsurgency’ and thinks it’s War Lite – a smarter cleaner way. But it’s not. War is always dirty. War is always about force.”“…certain I’d just found another place to the puzzle that was Iraq, but bemused as to where to place it.”
    • 4/5
      Matt Gallagher’s Youngblood is not the typical war novel spawned by America’s twentieth century wars. Those typically followed the exploits of a group of American soldiers as they fought their way across enemy territory, all the while taking casualties among the characters dearest to the reader’s heart, until a final victory could be claimed. America doesn’t fight that kind of war anymore, and this is not that kind of novel. Gallagher’s war takes place in Iraq, one of those countries in which the war is easier to win than the peace. Gallagher, himself a veteran of the Iraq war, has much to say about what that war was like – and luckily for the rest of us he is such a fine writer/novelist that we can learn much from what he shares with us.Lieutenant Jack Porter has been in the country long enough to feel frustrated by his mission and to begin doubting that he has the leadership skills called for by his role. Porter, though, continues to lead daily patrols in search of the hit-and-run Iraqi insurgents who are so good at blending in with Ashuriyah’s civilian population. The U.S. will soon be withdrawing from Iraq, in effect abandoning it to the very people the country has been fighting, and everyone knows it, including the enemy. Now Porter’s personal mission is simply to save as many of the lives of his men as possible. Unfortunately, snipers and those placing explosive devices in the paths of his patrols have the opposite mission: killing as many Americans as they can before the troops leave Iraq. Porter’s self-doubts reach a crisis stage when Sergeant Daniel Chambers, an aggressive veteran of several previous tours in Iraq, transfers into his unit. Chambers is not the kind of soldier who much worries about what any commanding officer thinks of him or his methods, and without consulting Porter, he begins to train the men to fight the war more aggressively than their lieutenant has allowed them to fight it beforehand. Porter, not wanting to directly challenge his new sergeant, instead starts looking for excuses to transfer Chambers out of his unit.Porter’s search for dirt on Chambers is the skeleton around which the author frames the rest of the novel. At times, in fact, Youngblood reads more like a detective story than it does a war novel because when Porter hears rumors that Chambers may be guilty of past war crimes against Iraqi civilians, he begins digging into file archives, interviewing potential crime witnesses, and searching for soldiers who served under Chambers during his previous tours. What he learns will have repercussions for Porter, Chambers, the men they command, and the Iraqi woman with whom Porter falls in love.Matt Gallagher’s talent for recreating the atmosphere of a chaotic war-torn country like Iraq makes Youngblood a memorable novel. He vividly portrays the mad dance for survival that the Iraqi population is involved in because of the multiple, simultaneous wars being fought in their country. At the same time that Americans are fighting Iraqi insurgents, Iraqis are fighting other Iraqis. A crossfire is a crossfire, and bombs don’t discriminate between their victims, meaning that women and children are no safer in their homes than men in the streets using automatic weapons and bombs to kill each other are. Anyone wanting to learn what fighting an unwinnable war feels like would do well to begin with a novel like Matt Gallagher’s Youngblood.