Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk

by Rebecca Godfrey

In the backseat, Colin Jones shook his head, and it occurred to him then that most girls Josephine’s age were watching Cinderella, but Josephine, here she was, abandoning dreams of princes and preferring the narrative of Scarface.

At 14?? His own girlfriend was that age when they got together. This is nonsensical.

Though he’d never traveled outside Canada, Warren knew a few things about California. He knew his namesake, Warren G., as well as Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, lived in the cities of Long Beach and Compton.

how could Warren G be his namesake? Warren G was about 10 when he was born

In Nanaimo, at the age of fourteen, Warren discovered on his own: acid, how to drive, the collected works of Too Short. Clara, an older neighborhood girl, taken, as the girls often were and might always be, by the sight of Warren’s large eyes and hopeful smile, introduced him to gangster rap, while Laura gave him his first tab of acid one night when they sat on the steps of the Silver City Theater. Clara would pinch his cheeks and tell him how cute he was, and he’d blush but enjoy the affection because he knew it so rarely.

How many times are we going to be told how cute this child is?

All summer, he saw violence and parties. There were fights at the parties, and parties at the fights. “I was too young to be in that scene,” he admitted, and his only good memory was of an older pretty neighborhood girl who pinched his cheek and called him “little cutie.” Otherwise he learned of neither art nor philosophy, and only of how it felt to be an outcast, which to him meant, “I didn’t feel comfortable. I didn’t feel right.” There were bonfires in the gravel pits and he got high, and stared at the flames and the dust.

??

A tall and pretty girl with curls down to her shoulders told him, “I’ll show you the ropes.” She told him he was such a little cutie.

Again with how cute he is!

Girls at Shoreline said Rich looked like L.L. Cool J. They called him Richie D., and around that time, Warren began to call himself Warren G. Erik wore his baseball cap just tilted perfectly to the side and also knew every song by Too $hort and was impressed that Warren knew the lyrics so well. Rich and Erik and D’Arcy beat him into the Crips and, after this initiation by pummeling, they said, “You’re part of the family now.” Though older boys in View Royal may have scoffed at Warren G. and “his whole gangster act,” older boys were unaware of the care and attention he brought to his outfits, which were, perhaps, both costume and disguise. He favored white. The color was distinctly his own, and it set him apart from his fellow gangsters, the members of the CMC (Crip Mafia Cartel). For the members of the CMC, blue was mandatory, red forbidden. White was Warren’s personal choice, and an unlikely one, for black may have better created the look of a badass he aspired to. At 5’4 and 115 pounds, Warren was far from a thug, and in fact could not have been cuter and, despite his knowledge of lewd song lyrics and his tempestuous domestic situation, innocent. Never has a boy looked more as if he wandered out of a fairy tale. His eyes were immense, and his eyelashes were long, and his expression was earnest and longing and always, always hopeful. He was possessed of the certain androgynous beauty that appeals so strongly to girls who have not yet turned sixteen. Like heartthrobs of pa...

He is far from a thug but was jumped into a gang? But he was so cute?

Grace adored him; she felt as if she was doing what every woman and girl wanted to do when they looked at Warren: save him.

including the author, I think

Warren tried hard to please the Crips, selling a little weed on the side and acting the tough badass around Erik and those guys so they would like him. And sometimes he felt like he was living a double life, but not a false life, since the innocent schoolboy and the badass were both true and part of him. He

His roommate, like Warren, was attractive and well behaved, and had it not been for the grotesque and terrible nature of their acts, the boys might have been mistaken for the sons of the wellborn, spending time at a boarding school. Warren often wondered how they both could have ended up like this, and he could find no answers, and still, very often, he would contemplate the fate of the boy beside him, the other killer who seemed to be possessed of neither malice nor hate. In March, a girl named Coral arrived, and she fell in love with Warren, and he was not sure what to do because he still loved Syreeta but he was very lonely.

weird fixation on how attractive these children are

Many of the girls in juvie may have had crushes on him, may even have fallen in love, and Warren may have loved them in return, but he would not, could not, forget about his love of Syreeta Hartley.

So much focus on how cute Warren is and these teen relationships

Had there ever been a person not somewhat moved by the lovely and frightened face of Warren?

Me

Warren walked off then, with only this stern warning: “If Syreeta asks you about the blood on my pants, tell her I beat up a Native guy.” He left her then. He left her “without even saying goodbye.”

WTF

Warren saw, on the pale blue envelope, a name in a familiar girlish scrawl, two words in the top left corner, two words that still caused his heart to catch and rise like a tuned guitar string: Syreeta Hartley.

Some of the girls had been stunningly beautiful, with soft hair and softer skin; some had been burly and rude, with heavy bodies and rough eyes. But they’d spoken of broken arms and whispers and lurings and blood in the water.

??

On Dateline, Josephine wore red lipstick and smoked Newport Lights. Like a noir femme fatale, she was nonchalant and sanguine.