So. I did really like this book and I rattled through it in a morning. I'm not saying I didn't like it.
I don't really know why this didn't blow me away *quite* as much as Sarah Crossan's other books. It had excellent writing (free verse, which, as I've mentioned before, I don't like as a rule, but with Sarah Crossan's writing it just really, really works), it's UKYA, slow-burn romance and massive social issues (racism, bullying, domestic violence, child abuse), but it didn't leave me bug-eyed and gasping for breath like the author's other books do. The only reason I can come up with is that she collaborated with another author, so I wasn't getting pure, unadulterated Sarah Crossan.
Still. Please don't think that this wasn't a good book. It really was. I loved the characters, who were very real and human in their failings and I loved the situation, which was horrific and something I didn't think the authors would be able to write their way out of.
And they kind of do and kind of don't . One thing I've found about Sarah Crossan's books is that she never gives a neatly-wrapped ending, because her stories are about life, and life doesn't have neatly-wrapped endings.
In conclusion, this was a good book. Really good. not my favourite Sarah Crossan book, but still a country mile better than a lot of other books out there.
4 stars