Trigger by C.G. Moore

Bibliographic Information:

Title: Trigger

Author: C.G. Moore

ISBN: 9781915071538

Publisher: Little Island

Copyright Date: 2024

Format/Genre: Paperback; Realistic fiction; Novels in verse (Trigger: NoveList Plus - Powered by EBSCOhost, n.d.).

Awards and Honors: Kirkus Best Teen & YA Verse Novels 2024

Reading Level/Interest Level: 9th grade and up (Title Detail: Trigger, n.d.)

Plot Summary: Seventeen-year-old Jay wakes up in a park beaten and bruised, and he cannot remember what happened the previous night. All he knows is he had been in an alley at a club with his boyfriend Jackson, his boyfriend told him he’d be right back, and then he woke up here. Now Jackson won’t even respond to Jay’s phone calls and texts. All Jay wants is to find out what happened. He goes to Jackson’s house and snoops around in his room and finds a Rolex – but Jackson doesn’t have enough money to buy a Rolex?? Jay starts going to therapy and slowly things start coming back to him. But when he finally learns the truth, does he really want to know the truth about what happened that night? Or the truth about Jackson?

Author Background: C.G. Moore was born and raised in Ireland, and he has worked for more than seven years in the publishing industry. He won the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year Award in 2022 for his Young Adult verse novel, Gut Feelings, and Trigger is his second novel.

Critical Evaluation: Trigger is a novel in verse, and the way Moore paces the verse, the way it is printed on each page, really increases the mystery and tension level of this novel. It’s a shocking story of sexual assault and the lengths that some people will go to in order to get things they don’t have.

Creative Use for a Library Program: I personally haven’t read a lot of novels in verse, and I’m not sure the teens who go to the library where I work have either. So, I would provide them with a plethora of additional novels in verse, about various subjects (they wouldn’t have to be as serious as this novel, but there would be some in the collection). I would ask each of them to read one and come back to deliver a booktalk on it.

Speed-Round Book Talk: A seventeen-year-old Irish boy named Jay goes to the club one evening with his boyfriend Jackson. While out in the alley by the club, Jackson tells Jay he’ll “be right back,” and next thing Jay knows, he awakens in the park beaten, bloodied, and bruised, feeling like he’s been sexually assaulted as well! What happened last night? And why won’t Jackson return Jay’s texts and calls?

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation: Lots here that the challengers might challenge. The fact that a seventeen-year-old boy is out at the club with his boyfriend. The sexual assault in this book. I would point out to the challengers how this book is a beautifully written novel in prose, by an award-winning author. Even if it discusses sensitive topics, it’s still an important novel for teens to read. Especially with the number of sexual assaults that go on each day that are not reported. And leave them with a copy of the collection development policy lol! Sensing a theme here?

Reason for Inclusion: I thought it was important to include a novel written in prose in my collection. When I read the summary in my issue of Booklist and saw that this novel was coming out I immediately ordered it, and started and finished it in one day. A very powerful book, beautifully written, telling a sad story of greed and betrayal.