Citrus County

Citrus County is a book written by John Brandon, set in the rural South where time passes slowly and boredom is the norm. This swampmire in Florida is redneck country and if you want to hang onto your belongings you’d better have them nailed down. John Brandon brings to life two hangdog middle schoolers and a psycho teacher at their school. All three have their eyes trained on pie in the sky to turn their hum drum lives into anything to chase away the boredom.

Cover of Citrus County

Toby McNurse is 14 years old and he’s not interested in the goings on of his class mates. He’s looking forward to growing up and turning into a real tough gangster. He’s just a punk now with detentions, a few thefts and some prank calls but he’s planning bigger and better things.

The teacher, Mr. Hibma is a psychopath that day dreams about killing the teachers that he despises. He hates teaching and avoids bringing forth any smatter of knowledge to his students. In reality he has the mind of a tormented child.

Toby’s classmate, Shelby is a good girl who dreams of a high life in society, maybe living in Paris, but for now a bad boy is just her style. Shelby’s four year old sister disappears but no suspects are found. In a macabre scene in the book, Toby wonders what he has gotten himself into. He says to himself. “Mistakes have been made.”

Brandon does a spectacular job of bringing all his characters to life. He shows their bare bone emotions and their weirdest hopes and dreams. The more we read, the more we hope for someone to step forward, put an end to the craziness and get these kids back on the straight and narrow.

Brandon walks us through the hellish landscape his characters travel. He let’s us inside their minds and hearts. He lets us choose what treasure to keep and what jetsum to throw away. This book is well worth the reading and afterwards, you may never look at school kids or teachers the same as you did before.