Sean Dempsey’s Dead Stars Shine Brightest: A Reckoning in Uvalde, Texas is a raw and emotionally intense novel that follows the fractured life of Derek Jackson, a broken veteran and struggling father, as he navigates grief, guilt, and growing dread in a small Texas town. Set against the real-life backdrop of the Uvalde school shooting, the story blends fiction with visceral social commentary. Told in two parts, the narrative first centers on Derek and his estranged daughter, Jade, then transitions into Jade’s perspective as the legal system and local authorities fail them in harrowing, all-too-real ways. Their shared journey, punctuated by violence, redemption, and a desperate need for justice, feels urgent and personal.

The writing is gritty and unapologetic, with Derek’s voice sounding like someone you might overhear at a bar right before he breaks into tears or a fight. Dempsey doesn’t excuse a single thing. This story aches with sadness and rages against everything from school bureaucracy to systemic cowardice. I was especially struck by how well the narrative captured the complicated love between Derek and Jade. Their bond is messy, but it’s real, and their slow road back to each other was one of the few hopeful threads in a book steeped in loss and despair. That said, the prose does lean on dramatic metaphors at times, but the emotional weight behind them always hits home.

The ideas in this book–justice, fatherhood, institutional failure, and community apathy–are yanked into the light and made to bleed. Some of the courtroom and legal scenes veer into a kind of moral theater compared to the messy truth of earlier chapters. But the real world doesn’t deliver justice cleanly. Dempsey clearly has a bone to pick with the way things are, and his anger pulses through every page.

I’d recommend Dead Stars Shine Brightest to anyone who isn’t afraid to sit in the uncomfortable. This book is not for the faint of heart or the politically squeamish. But if you want something that’ll grab you and then quietly pat your shoulder afterward, this is it. It’s for veterans, for fathers, for survivors, for anyone who’s ever been told to sit down and stay quiet while the system rolls on.

Pages: 178 | ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0F861W91V