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Billy Dead

Lisa Reardon

3.87 · Rating details · 128 ratings · 19 reviews

When Ray Johnson's brother Billy is found murdered in a ditch, Ray is overcome with sorrow and a strange sense of relief. In a quiet Michigan town with no secrets, Billy's death unleashes some ugly memories -- events that the working-class Johnson family has struggled for years to forget. Ray watches closely as the sheriff pursues the killer, and soon he is reluctantly dra ...more

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Paperback, 272 pages

Published May 1st 2000 by Penguin Books

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3.87 ·

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· 128 ratings · 19 reviews

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May 13, 2009 Amber Anderson rated it it was amazing

I read this a few years ago but still recall so much of it. Mostly I remember the way this book made me feel-uneasy. It also took me way back to the towns and trailer parks I spent time in during the occasional weekends with my deadbeat father. I imagine the home of the family was dimly lit and reeked of cheap beer and cigarette smoke...Turns out that this story takes place in one of those small towns in Michigan (also where the author grew up).

It opens with the mysterious murder of Billy, a ter ...more

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Apr 29, 2015 Jennifer Rockwell rated it it was amazing

I am absolutely wrecked. Some of the most searing, brilliant, unflinching, heart-breaking writing I've read in some time. A powerhouse of a novel. Not for the fainthearted, but very much for the open-hearted. Highly recommend.

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May 09, 2015 Anne rated it it was amazing

This is a novel that does the first person present tense narrative in a masterful way. Lisa Reardon is an intensely empathetic curator and guide as she takes readers on a keep-up-with-me-please look at a girl's life, forsaken by her mother when it most counts, and who is raped not only by father and older brother as a very small child, but develops a very dysfunctional yet loving common-law relationship with a second brother. I don’t want to know these people; my revulsion is strong; I want to w This is a novel that does the first person present tense narrative in a masterful way. Lisa Reardon is an intensely empathetic curator and guide as she takes readers on a keep-up-with-me-please look at a girl's life, forsaken by her mother when it most counts, and who is raped not only by father and older brother as a very small child, but develops a very dysfunctional yet loving common-law relationship with a second brother. I don’t want to know these people; my revulsion is strong; I want to walk away. But I can’t walk away from a characters that are so loved by their creator.

My teacher Randall Brown shared with me some notes of his from Steve Almond essays, and I was struck by how perfectly Reardon’s novel overcomes my objections and soothes my hesitation to continue reading after the first 10-20 pages. I guess this review is as much an appreciation for Steve Almond as it is for Lisa Reardon.

Almond said, the heart of a particular character must be on the brink of emotional tumult. The character, in this case the narrator Ray Johnson, must care a lot about something and this passion places him in danger over and over again. Reardon checks this box off sharply. There's a great scene at the very end when Ray will go out of his mind if he doesn't find what he's looking for, and the narration goes into run-on overdrive: "Clatter clatter Judy would you grab the napkins please dishcloth flopping on the counter no I want the red one Mommy slices of ham with beans and onions hush up now water running anyone seen Sherry little girl in a checked green dress chewing on a naked paper doll I'm out of town usually four days out of the week Ray your mother's been looking for you." It works so well -- she uses that trick only once in the novel and just where it works perfectly.

Almond also said it’s impossible to sympathize with a character unless you are embedded in their world, a world that is not composed of vagaries, but a precise set of dramatic circumstances—of which your loyal reader should be apprised. And this is exactly why I didn’t rate Laura Vandenberg’s “Find Me,” also written in the first-person present tense, as highly as Reardon’s novel. Reardon’s narrator is a fully submerged opticon, seeing in all directions and reporting what he sees, but Vandenberg’s (and stylistically this makes sense because that narrator is addicted to cough syrup) is a fog of abstract observations. But Reardon’s mile-deep scene setting doesn’t slow the narrative down.Every detail adds sympathy and moves the story forward. There’s this little character, Whaley, he’s a 92-year old man, and he’s as important to this story as Owl Eyes is to Gatsby. Come to think of it, he is this novel’s Owl Eyes. Another reason to love Billy Dead.

A final point of Almond’s that I can apply to Reardon is that the writer must love her characters at all times, and Reardon certainly does. She sends them barreling into the danger of their own desires. In doing so, on the other side of the page, I as a reader care for them to survive. As they go through life smashing things up, I feel like the deer that flies over the windshield of Ray’s car, who says “Oh no,” and is unharmed, but I’ve been given an experience by this writer that is full, and fair, and truthful.

Five stars. ...more

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May 11, 2010 Ruth Sims rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Billy Dead is considered, by some who are closer to being intellectual than I am, to be very good. The writing is; there's no doubt that Reardon can write very well.

But "Billy Dead" is one of the most unpleasant books I've ever read. Usually I remember characters long after I've finished the book, but I finished it a week ago and I can't remember any of the names except Billy of the title. And I wish I could forget him.

The story is narrated by Billy's younger brother and it begins by telling ab ...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Christie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourite-books, book-club-reads

Lisa Reardon's book, Billy Dead, earned copious praise when it was published in 1998 and it deserves the honors. Years after I first read it- I keep thinking about the story’s flawed and difficult characters, siblings Billy, Ray and Jean. The story is narrated by Ray and it’s a story of poverty, abuse and redemption. It’s unflinching, too; Reardon doesn’t gloss over any of the details and it is for perhaps this reason that the book was highly regarded by critics. Alice Munro (perhaps the greates ...more

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Jul 17, 2009 Lizzy C rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I <3 You Lisa

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Dec 02, 2010 Mitch rated it liked it

At first this really bores me, I started reading it a few months from now but i stopped because it lacks me interest cause it was actually random and you couldn't get what the books was trying to say. But as soon as i read further, it kept me going like crazy. I almost couldn't put the book down because each chapter ends with a very intriguing scenario.

The story behind this book is truly admiring, intriguing and very very disturbing. Most of the time it really disgusts me, it's pure violence for ...more

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Oct 16, 2015 Michael rated it liked it

Shelves: author-s-first-book, award-winner-or-nominee, collectible, family-relationships, literary-prize-winner, mike-s-mission-110-books-in-2015, mystery, narrative, own-it, read-in-2015

Billy and Ray Johnson were brothers that had the usual brotherly spats but also suffered abuse. The description of their life and the things that Billy does at a young age are uncomfortable to read.
When Billy's body is found, the reader assumes that it was by someone who watched him crawl down the road by Ray's house. The misery is described but Ray's reaction seems cold and matter of fact.
This sorrowful picture and writing style reminded me of Erskine Caldwell's "God's Little Acre." That book c ...more

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Apr 10, 2013 JG rated it it was ok

Shelves: disturbing, drama, note-worthy

Lisa Reardon can write sad and deppressing atmosphere no doubt. But i dont think i like what she had written; hence teh 2 stars.

So Billy Dead is more like psychological suspense novel, no one got arrested for the death of Billy but it was fairly predicteable who commited the crime so i dont think it was much of a mystery.

Wow though...the world that Lisa created is unforgetable. I remember reading it when i was in the 6th grade and 4 years later i can still recall that intense feeling i was plu ...more

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May 08, 2015 Z L Sickels rated it it was amazing

If I had to pick an all-time favorite book, it would be an easy choice. It's Billy Dead. This book is the greatest love story I've ever read. The love affair is so forbidden, disgusting to most people even, yet it's a true love story between two people who need each other. Because, maybe it takes someone who has grown up in a certain way to love someone who also grew up that way. As a victim of childhood sexual abuse I'm learning that it never really goes away. Maybe that's one reason these char ...more

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Oct 18, 2015 Al Sevcik rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

This is the first of Lisa Reardon’s three novels – all of which are winners. In Billy Dead she pulls off a tour d force, a novel that is beautifully written but – centered on a family which the word “dysfunctional” barely begins to describe. In the entire book there isn’t one character whom a sane person would invite to dinner. Yet – yet – step by step the reader becomes involved. The genius of Reardon is that the moment you decide a character is as awful as he/she can get, suddenly, that person ...more

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Dec 13, 2013 Leife Shallcross rated it it was amazing

Completely shattering. A devastating but beautifully rendered portrait of a family defined by the abusive behaviour of the father. What I found most interesting and most striking was how Reardon manages to convey the strength of familial relationships, even under the appalling circumstances these children grow up under. This book explains why it might be so hard to sever your ties with the very people who have damaged you beyond belief. What was terrifying was how normalised some of the abusers' ...more

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Aug 07, 2015 Donald Jans rated it really liked it

Not about unicorns pooping rainbows. Great novel, about a really tough subject. Very insightful, and tough to read at times. But every story doesn't need to be about unicorns pooping rainbows. Kudos to the author for tackling this one.

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