Linda’s childhood could be described at best as nontraditional, at worst as isolating and lonely. In her fifteenth year she meets little Paul Gardner and his parents, and everything changes.

The reader knows from the very start that something tragic is going to happen, without knowing exactly what. What unfolds is a moving tale that “confronts the life-and-death consequences of the things people do—and fail to do—for the people they love”.

In the beginning I did find myself wondering, What is the point of this part of the story? Or that one? (i.e. Mr. Grierson, Lily). But the purpose of each thread is revealed by the second half, which then goes on to wring your heart out for the remainder of the book. Overall I found it to be an ensnaring piece of literary fiction about searching for your place in the world, about guilt, about “the difference between what you want to believe and what you do,” “between what you think and what you end up doing.”

“I’ve found that some people who’ve done something bad will just go ahead and condemn everyone else around them to avoid feeling shitty themselves. As if that even works. Other types of people, and I’m not saying you’re this, necessarily, but I’m just putting it out there, will defend people like me on principle because when their turns come around, they want that so badly for themselves.”

A well-written story that is tragic but irrefutably powerful.