Early praise
"The BangBang Boys is alive and fresh and—especially in the way it shows the everyday terrors of the political—full of the best kind of mischief. Who doesn’t love a chorus of hustlers?"
—Justin Torres, author of Blackouts
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"Set against a noirish backdrop of authoritarian violence and corruption, The BangBang Boys is a thriller at once pulse-pounding and heartbreaking. Zaragoza Mayshle's vibrant debut finds poignancy in the profane, and tenderness amid the terror."
—Peter Ho Davies, author of A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself
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"I’ve been waiting for this novel for twenty years and it was more than worth the wait. Peter Zaragoza Mayshle’s kinetic debut follows a found family of 'boys' caught up in the violent raids of the Duterte era and the choices they make to protect what they hold most dear. The BangBang Boys offers profound wisdom about the strain of living under a strongman—and how to survive a ruthless world with your humanity and hope intact."
—Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hearts
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"The BangBang Boys is the most propulsive book I've read in some time. Zaragoza Mayshle has written an epic, heartwrenching tale that winds through the authoritarianism of Duterte's Philippines, capturing the pain, the loss, and the beauty of resistance and survival. He does all this while balancing a tremendous cast of characters with humorous, tender, and wickedly smart prose. Everyone says this, but I freaking mean it: I couldn't put this book down."
—Alejandro Varela, author of Middle Spoon
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"Intimate and dissonant, Zaragoza Mayshle captures a generation marked for death yet aching for love, dignity, and various reinventions. A mad and unforgettable portrait of Manila at the edge of collapse. A brilliant debut."
—Zain Khalid, author of Brother Alive
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"Zaragoza Mayshle’s novel may seem small on its surface—the spare prose, the brevity of the volume, the vignettes that comprise its structure—but these words strike with the force of a jackhammer. The BangBang Boys is a pulsating, terrifying, eviscerating, resonant, musical work that I won’t forget."
—Addie E. Citchens, author of Dominion
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