(I read an advance copy of this several months ago, but didn’t want to write about it ’til it was actually out there to be read.)
This book is really lovely, never strained or cheesy or simplistic or didactic or any of the bad things that young adult books can sometimes be. It’s filled with quirky adults and kids who are articulate and pretty interesting themselves, and the writing is vivid, readable: the descriptions are detailed without being overly so, and the dialogue is right on, and sometimes wickedly funny. I like that there’s more to this book than high school dramas; I like that it references Gillian Welch and Bob Dylan and David Bowie, quotes Emily Dickinson, is filled with characters who sing and write and make art; I like that it’s complex enough that no one’s ever always happy or always miserable; I like that the characters inhabit in-between social spaces.
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