"A pulsing novel filled with so much love and tenderness.”
—MORGAN TALTY, Night of the Living Rez
“At times moody and violent, other times tender and curious, Charlie J. Stephens’ debut novel A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest hits hard; it’s a story about anger, about self-discovery, about abuse, about refuge, but ultimately about survival.”
—TOMAS MONIZ, All Friends Are Necessary
“A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest portrays the nearly inexpressible—the blazing soul of a child who lives well outside the reach of economic, social, or familial protections. Young Smokey exists in a world of lurid carnal facts, of adults incapable of rising above their own clamoring needs, of a post-industrial Nature that yet calls to its own. Smokey holds their flame to guide us as long as it can possibly burn, drawing us deeper and deeper into a bitter, forever-raining, but enfolding wilderness. Charlie J. Stephens sustains the authorial courage to stick the landing: no simplistic plot saves, no looking away.”
—KARIN ANDERSON, What Falls Away
“I don’t know when I’ve ever been this excited by a new voice. Smokey, the narrator of Charlie J. Stephens’ A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest, does whatever it takes to stay alive at a time and place in which the adults can’t be relied upon and plants and animals are the most sustaining guardians. Every moment here is loving, tough, and incandescent, and I know I’m never going to forget this book because I’m going to keep coming back to it. It’s stunning.”
—PAUL LISICKY, Later
“Stephens reveals a secret and unseen world, sensitized to the dark magic of poverty and neglect in woodlands, where being othered is at once the cage and the key.”
—JONATHAN T. BAILEY, When I Was Red Clay
“Using prose that’s at once lyrical and precise, Smokey, the preternaturally observant child narrator of A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest, expertly immerses the reader in their tiny, constricted world. The humans of this world are all deeply wounded by toxic masculinity, but consolation amidst the pain and chaos can be found in a heroic, if highly unorthodox, maternal love and—above all—the companionship of animals. This is not a story that will be quickly forgotten.”
—ALVIN ORLOFF, Fabulosa Books
“A Wounded Deer Leaps the Highest is a vivid and compelling novel that captures the lush and dark landscape of Oregon and the sharp edges of a young person's will to survive poverty and violence. Charlie J. Stephens has carved their story into my memory with their exquisite and shocking prose. I couldn't look away. Theirs is a story I'll not soon forget.”
—CHELSIA RICE, Montana Book Company
“A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest is a debut as wondrous as the life it portrays. In Moss River, Oregon, where the sky is the exact color of a blood orange, eight-year-old Smokey lives where no life seems possible by befriending animals, depending on Big Oak, and latching onto the moments of goodness their mother can offer. With a light touch and in beautiful prose, Charlie J. Stephens creates a life and makes it matter.”
—CYNTHIA NEWBERRY MARTIN, Tidal Flats
“Though slim, this novel packs an emotional wallop.”
—EMILY, Pegasus Books
“A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest is a novel that shows the reader how the human heart expands and grows and learns to survive in a world outside of their control."
—KEVIN SAMPSELL, Powell’s Books
“A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest is utterly gorgeous. I wish I had this book growing up, I wish my mother had this book, and her mother, and everyone who has ever had to turn their pain into meaning."
—KALI FAJARDO-ANSTINE, Woman of Light
“In gorgeous prose, Stephens shows us moments of solidarity, connection, and hope. This book broke my heart."
—ANDREA LAWLOR, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
“Stephens has given us a delicate, fierce look at how young people reject the systems and violence of our parents. At the end, I wanted to start again, to know the Oregon landscape that much better, to see for just a little longer through Smokey's sensitive and lonely eyes.
—LEWIS RAVEN WALLACE, The View from Somehwere
