Honest haunting depressing thoughtful intriguing and brave these…

Honest, haunting, depressing, thoughtful, intriguing, and brave: these are some adjectives that I could attribute to book 71. It definitely turned out to be highly unlike what I thought the book was about: instead of being a murder mystery with lots of tension and drama, it is contemplative, pleading, and it does not offer a crowd pleasingly easy ending. This is not a book that I can lure young readers into reading by telling them some tantalizing tidbits from the tale: I want them going into the story knowing that they will encounter something tough and might be emotionally hard to process. I also don’t see this as a book designed for “children” as much as for slightly older readers and for the author as a way to close a long lasting, achy wound. I am pleased to have read it, though, and will recommend it to my teen readers.