The main chunk of this book is about grieving. Grieving in all forms and how young adults handle the grief. It brings up child and spousal abuse, gang violence, abandonment, illness and death. This book revolves around these topics and the holds they have on our young characters and how they deal with them.

The writing is excellent, the subject matter important and you will really feel for these characters along their journey. A journey no one wants to go down but a journey we will all face in some form at some point in our lives. We will all encounter death, illness and in some form or another hatred from another person. I think this is an excellent book depicting that. These characters don't grieve in their rooms hidden from the world and then when they emerge they are 'healed'. Instead, they are forced to face their fears, anger, sadness and other facets of grief in a very hard, grandiose way. There is no 'happy ending' rather a slight closure and a glimpse of a beginning to the next chapter of their journey through life.

This book was moving, emotional, full of a lot of hardships with silver linings. It makes you grieve with the characters and hope for them in their future journey.

I'd recommend this book for mature young adults and older. This book contains subject matter that may not be suitable for those under thirteen as it contains language, violence, sexual situations and other PG-13 situations. ( )