I did not love this book, at all. It wasn’t horrible; I’ve certainly read worse but it was too long, repetitive and boring. I kept reading because I was mildly interested in what happened to the mother and it was very quick reading but perhaps I should have given up. The book was very long but written in a very simplistic way, as if written for children, not adults. The story was pretty simple and only took place over a few days but somehow she dragged it out for many, many pages and chapters. It also was another book that was written from multiple viewpoints including a few that don’t join in until quite late in the book which always irks me.  If they are in the book from the beginning why don’t they have their own chapters right from the beginning?

The main character is a teenage girl who we are told frequently has ice blonde hair (which she repeatedly “brushed until it shined” over the course of a few days), is a genius and piano prodigy. She also had killed some classmates in a car crash and served some time in a diversion center for young offenders. This is kept secret from her stepfather and it some convoluted way, leads to her mother’s death a few years later.

The whole book was written in a stilted style and oddly had long parts of a play that the teenage boy wrote. It was tedious. I don’t think I will read any more of her books.