Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, August 2016
Genre: Fiction
Pages: eBook, 346 pages
Rating: 5/5 stars
Summary (from Goodreads.com):
As the daughter of a meth dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. Struggling to raise her little brother, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible "adult" around. She finds peace in the starry Midwestern night sky above the fields behind her house. One night everything changes when she witnesses one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold, wreck his motorcycle. What follows is a powerful and shocking love story between two unlikely people that asks tough questions, reminding us of all the ugly and wonderful things that life has to offer.
Review:
Going into this book, all I had seen were good star ratings but I hadn't read anything about what it was about or the actual reviews. I feel very conflicted on whether I want to give this book a stunning review, or talk about just how horrified I was to learn about its controversial topic...
Let's not beat around the bush here... I've marked this as a "spoiler" review because I'm not sure how clear they make the statutory rape topic in any of the synopsis's.
I was disgusted and horrified when I read about how Kellan and Wavy's relationship progressed. When I first started reading, I knew that it seemed to be leaning that way, but assumed it was more on Wavy's end and she just had a school girl crush but no... it most definitely was not that way. When things progressed into actual, uncomfortable to read, sexual encounters, I felt all sorts of mixed emotions. I was grossed out, horrified, disgusted, sickened... all the appropriate adjectives to describe very disruptive relations between a 12/13 year old and a 25+ year old. However, the relationship that had developed, through the first half of the story, between Kellan and Wavy was so beautiful and innocent... loving and trusting... that it made an absolutely bad situation not seem as... illegal. I just have so many weird feelings about this book that I understand the ratings and can't help but give it a 5-star myself.
I don't really know what else to say... the characters were great, I enjoyed each of the points of view that the story was written from and felt that they all added greatly to the overall flow. For me, the story read very quickly and had me anxious to hear what was going to happen next.
Overall, I really did love this book, even with such a controversial topic, it was handled with beauty and grace and I can honestly recommend it to anyone who is willing to take a chance on a book that is maybe a little out of their comfort zone.
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