I started off thinking that Dashka Slater's organizational style was disjointed and didn't like it as much as the past few books that I've read. By the end, I felt like it was flowing, and I read much faster. I believe that this difference says more about the change in me than about the prose changing.

As I read, I found myself getting more comfortable with Sasha and their friends'/family's use of they/their/them as a personal pronoun, particularly after Sasha talked about how it validated them.

Additionally, I found myself seeing Richard as more and more of a sympathetic character as I heard more about laws and statistics about Juvenile crime. The chapter describing 16-year-old brains was perhaps the most important part of this book, though I would suggest the entirety as a meaningful read for everyone, both high-schoolers, and adults, particularly adults involved in education (including admin, secretaries, lunch personnel, bus-drivers).

Dashka Slater has really given the reader a window into this age from two very different points of view. There was no reliance on rage or paranoia, but there were times when many different people expressed anger, lack of hope, etc. without it being fleeting, but also without being constant. So like the age group, where extreme emotion one moment can lead to wanting to put something behind you some moment later.

Read this book. I have a copy if you want to borrow it.