Summary

  Surrender, by Sonya Hartnett, is a young adult novel about a boy who is dying and his best friend Finnigan. The story is told through flashbacks while Gabriel is, as we find out at the end, in a hospital.  Gabriel, whose real name is Anwell, accidentally killed his brother when he was seven.  He feels very guilty about this so when Gabriel and Finnigan become friends they make a pact together that Gabriel will do only good things so that Finnigan can do bad things. Finnigan goes around the town setting fires, which causes much upset, but is never found out to be the arsonist. Finnigan causes many problems in Gabriels life and is not nice to him.  Towards the end of the novel Gabriel kills his parents and is taken away.  As the book goes on it becomes more and more clear that Finnigan is Gabrial’s second personality.  In the end he sees his dead brother and Gabriel goes toward him, symbolizing his death.