The Fourth Angel by John Rechy

The Fourth Angel -- John Rechy

There are three "angels"--two boys, Bob and Manny, and a girl, Shell--all sixteen. They recruit a fourth angel, Jerry, also sixteen. Despite their youth, all carry an ugly past. They deny it by turning a falsely brave front to the world, by using hip, obscene language to conceal their real feelings, by drowning their fears in frantic action, by directing their mounting rage at one another.

by John Rechy

Fighting themselves and the boredom of the hot Texas summer that stretches before them like a barren desert, they range parks, streets, derelict houses, killing time by playing private and very dangerous games. They get their kicks by picking on people--strange people, perverts, anybody--trying to get into their heads.

The Fourth Angel -- John Rechy

As they hover in the limbo between childhood and adulthood, the four "angels" maintain a precarious balance among themselves and within the intriguing but hostile world confronting them. They keep playing with fire until the playing explodes into a terrible reality they all have to face.

by John Rechy

The books's epigraph is from Blake:

Then they followed
Where the vision led,
And saw their sleeping child
Among tigers wild.

Rechy's four teen-agers are in many ways still children--tinged with innocence and capable of beauty--but they are also tigers, ferocious, cold, destructive.