Nathan Leeper’s Reviews > Only Killers and Thieves > Status Update

Tommy found out that Sullivan was really the one that killed his parents so Tommy killed Sullivan. Noone didn't really react much and told Tommy to go somewhere else, and if he ever came back he would kill him. Tommy found Arthur and they went and lived on the same land in different houses and made a living for themselves.

Sullivan tells the boys they technically don't own the land their parents had, but he says he'll make a deal to let them work for him and pay off their debt.

Everyone had a big dinner because while they were gone, they missed Christmas and new years.

They arrived back at Sullivan's house and Tommy took a bath. Mary had died while they were one. Tommy started having flashbacks of what happened.

The group finished what they had sought out to do. They committed a massacre on the Native tribe. At the start of the story, Billy and Tommy appeared to be the good guys, but Billy slowly turned evil, and now so did Tommy. The protagonists of the story have become the bad guys. The way the scene of the massacre was written was in a poem style, which made it seem even more inhuman and gruesome.

Once Tommy realized what they were about to do, he woke Billy up and tried to convince him to leave and go back home. Noone was secretly awake and listening, and told him he would tie them to a tree and burn them slowly if they tried to leave.

As the group continued, they came across the whole tribe of the Kurrong natives and camped right outside their village. Everyone started cleaning their guns and preparing and Tommy finally realized that they didn't care about avenging his family, they were only here to kill the Native people.

Noone told Billy and Tommy that the last native man left alive had killed their family. Both knew that this was not true, but billy agreed to kill him. Tommy refused, but after Billy missed and hit the man in the shoulder, Tommy decided to do it instead.

In the night, Locke killed the Native man that had speared him. No one seemed to care that the man was dead and everyone just acted normal.

The story is starting to deal with more heavy ideas such as racism, murder, and sexual assault. The overall feeling of the book reminds me of to kill a mockingbird, but even more heavy.