Purple Heart

Starred review from August 24, 2009
In this suspenseful psychological thriller, 18-year-old Matt Duffy, a private with memory problems following a traumatic brain injury, receives the Purple Heart in Iraq and gradually unravels the contradictory events that led to the honor. McCormick (Sold
) sharply draws the culture of the Green Zone hospital, the camaraderie of the enlisted men and (via phone calls and letters) the gulf between life at home versus on the front. Friendship, bravado and juvenile antics counteract the soldiers' guilt, paranoia and unease around Iraqis (“ 'Enemy' was the official term. 'Insurgents' was okay, too. Everybody called them hajis, though”). Strong characters heighten the drama, especially likable Matt, but also the sympathetic hospital psychiatrist who balances complicated allegiances and legal obligations, and flinty Charlene, the sole female member of Matt's squad. As Matt remembers more and more, tension builds and he becomes confused about interpretations of the truth (and when to reveal them) within the chain of command. McCormick raises moral questions without judgment and will have readers examining not only this conflict but the nature of heroism and war. Ages 12–up.

November 1, 2009
"A classic case of collateral damage" is how the officer interviewing eighteen-year-old Private Matt Duffy describes the Baghdad firefight that left two Iraqi civilians dead and Matt injured, recovering in a Green Zone hospital. Yet the tense, expertly layered mystery of what actually happened pulses behind the military euphemisms. It's a mystery for Matt as well as the reader, since he sustained a TBI (traumatic brain injury) -- "it's like a concussion, only worse," explains the doctor -- and remembers only disconnected images from the "incident" in the alley. McCormick takes her audience inside Matt's mind as he heals and tries to process troubling, confusing details. He learns that one of the Iraqis killed was a child he had befriended, an orphan who lived on the streets. With the prodding of an army therapist, a woman assigned to evaluate whether he's ready to return to active duty, Matt starts to have flashbacks of young Ali flying backward "through the turquoise sky, higher and higher, until all Matt could see were the soles of his shoes." Does this mean Matt pulled the trigger, that he's a child killer? With this question, as with all of the questions in this hard-hitting novel, the answer is complex and heartbreaking.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2009
Grades 9-12 McCormick, never one to shy away from heavy issues (self-mutilation in Cut, 2000; sexual slavery in Sold, 2006), now takes readers into the dark heart of wartime Iraq. Private Matt Duffy awakes in a hospital bed, suffering from a severe brain injury sustained during a confrontation with insurgents. His memory of the encounter is foggy, but the pieces that slowly settle in contradict the story told by his squadmate and friend, Justin. An Iraqi kid was killed, though no one seems to know why or by whom, and Matt gets the distinct feeling that the Army doesnt want to know. McCormick clearly evokes Matts longing to return to his unit and his buddies and sets that against the psychological trauma of reentering the fray and coming to terms with a death for which he holds himself accountable. Gripping details of existence in a war zone bring this to life, and penetrating questions about duty and guilt drive it home. Pair this novel with Ghosts of War, reviewed on p.49, a teen soldiers account of his time in Iraq.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2009
Gr 7 Up-McCormick follows up her best-selling "Sold" (Hyperion, 2006) with a haunting look at the soldiers in Iraq. Matt Duffy is a private who escapes dying after nearly being hit by an RPG, but cannot remember what happened to him, has a hard time grasping new things, and desperately wants to get back to his squad. Most of the book is about Matt trying to recover from TBI, the soldiers he meets in the hospital and the physical and mental problems they face, and the discovery of what really happened that day he got shot. The characters are heart-wrenching, true, and realistic. The author's research into the war is obvious and brings an awareness to readers of the situation over there that they might not otherwise have. What the text lacks is a sense of the military action. While this is a worthy purchase, teens will get more out of it if they read Walter Dean Myers's "Sunrise Over Fallujah" (Scholastic, 2008) first."Richard Winters, Wasco High School, CA"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2010
A Baghdad firefight leaves Private Matt Duffy injured and two Iraqi civilians dead. Since Matt sustained a traumatic brain injury, what happened is a mystery. McCormick takes readers inside Matt's damaged mind as he tries to process the details. Did he pull the trigger? Is he a child killer? As with all the questions in this hard-hitting novel, the answers are complex and heartbreaking.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)