Kung Fu
Ryan Gattis
19 May 2016
9781509813513Synopsis
Jen B's been surviving at the nightmarishly brutal MLK High School just like everybody else: by following the rules. She avoids the Principal. She doesn't complain. She's loyal to her MLK 'family'. And, like 99.5% of the student body, she knows one form or another of martial arts.
When Jen's world-famous Kung-Fu champion of a cousin Jimmy Chang turns up, everyone wants a piece of him - including Ridley, resident drug lord and leader of the school's most violent gang. They all want to see the legendary martial-arts master defend himself during the school's merciless initiation ritual.
Except that Jimmy's made a promise never to fight again - a promise that soon leads to the murder of Jen's brother and a bloody final battle that engulfs the entire school.
Fast-paced, gritty and addictive, Kung Fu by Ryan Gattis is an extreme journey into high-school violence and the American Dream that feeds it.
It's so tense that at times you have absolutely no idea what has just happened in the real world because you're in The Fu, entirely. You feel every blow, every break. And what a climax . . . I want to tell you all about it so that I can discuss with you how wonderful, tragic and ultimately cathartic it was . . . but I won't. You'll just have to keep a strong stomach and see for yourselfIndependent on Sunday
Ryan Gattis's homage to the world of martial arts is a way-cool, direct and stylish romp of fiction that feels very real . . . A modern, violent epic of teenage kicks in the school of hard knocks. Kung Fu is a bloodied white-knuckle ride that never forgets the consequences of its actionsThe List
