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bendercath's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book was heartily recommended to me by someone I respect a lot so I was very eager to fall in love with it. WFTD=Disappointed. The characters are charming and lovable … but they are just not real! The three central adolescent characters all have experienced grief, loss, and trauma, yet they are remarkably unselfish, quite self-aware, and forgiving. Where is the anger, the hurt, the self-doubt? There was some mention of doubt but it was not fully explored. People with a prefrontal cortex that is not fully formed are going to be much more impulsive and make a lot more mistakes than these three characters do.
I really liked the relationship between Sal and his father … and the ending was fulfilling in that regard. His dad was truly the hero of the book.
There was a lot of repetition in the dialogue (both internal and in their interactions) and this became quite tedious. I was listening to this as an audiobook and flipped it up to double-speed about two-thirds of the way just to get through it faster. And this was very sad because Robbie Daymond’s narration was excellent.
I really liked the relationship between Sal and his father … and the ending was fulfilling in that regard. His dad was truly the hero of the book.
There was a lot of repetition in the dialogue (both internal and in their interactions) and this became quite tedious. I was listening to this as an audiobook and flipped it up to double-speed about two-thirds of the way just to get through it faster. And this was very sad because Robbie Daymond’s narration was excellent.
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Drug use
Minor: Rape
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