Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Life Style Violent Juvenile | 1979 | Andrew Vachss | Buy |
The Life Style Violent Juvenile is Andrew Vachss’s only nonfiction book, published in 1979, six years before his first novel Flood. It draws on his direct experience working as an attorney in the juvenile justice system, examining violent youth offenders and the circumstances that produce them. The book is academic in approach but informed by firsthand contact with the young people it describes.
This work is important context for understanding everything Vachss wrote afterward. The themes he explored here, including child abuse, institutional failure, and the cycle of violence, became the foundation of his fiction career. Burke, Cross, and every other character Vachss created grew out of the reality documented in this book. For readers interested in the real-world basis of Vachss’s crime novels, The Life Style Violent Juvenile is the starting point.