This is a character based book.
So lets make this clear right from the start, before saying anything else!
If you need a huge plot outside of characters and explanations on why they behaved as they do and how their character build that way? This is not the book for you.
If you need action?
If you need adventure and huge parties and love affairs and huge drama scenes?
Not the book for you!

This is a book about people.
Children and parents.
Friends and Lovers.
What it means to love someone and sometimes what that makes you do.
Sometimes to extremes.

But throughout all of that?
The characters is whats important.
What they do, how they behave and why and getting to know them and in many ways understanding them.

Seeing that you can do good but it ends up being something bad.
Or you can do something bad and just meant it to be something good.

Learning love can be harmful to others, even if it wasn't an abusive love.

And on top of all those beautiful moments of explaining why people are never either bad or good, either black or white, or nice or horrible, this book has some of the best characters.

We have two wonderfully connectable main characters that are so different but at the same time quite similar.

We have parents in this book that love their kids, that are in their kids life -sometimes too much as parents that are actual doing their job as a parent tent to be!- and want to know what is going on with them and try to understand them.

But at the same time this book doesn't down play that the parents are people.
People that make mistakes and sometimes don't see that they are making mistakes.
And that they can have humor, that they can enjoy having their kid as someone to talk to and hang out with...

I just loved that this book had different parent relationships and that parents where not something ignored or glanced over here but a prominent part!

"Tonight sucked," my dad said, and I started to laugh hearing him say that. "What?" He smiled at me. "Isn't that the slang you kids are using? The lingo? Do I sound hip?"
I just shook my head. "The only hip I hear is the sound of yours breaking."
"Ohhhh!" he cried, like I had just made a three-point shot from the free-throw line. "That's a good one. let no one say that my daughter doesn't have a few zingers in her back pocket." (page: 245)

We have such fantastic friendships in this book.
Where its okay to fight and yes sometimes even hate and be jealous of the other person but at the end thats okay, because thats friendships! There is a lot of knowledge and backlog of issues with the love and wonderful times and sometimes steam has to be let out.

I also love how acceptable everyone just is for the individual personalities of each of the friends in the group.
We have the over organized "this pencil has to be sharped exactly to this point or its not sharp" kind of character, that organizes post-its not only in order of size but also color or its organized.
But that isn't seen as strange or something to make fun off, but rather just mentioned as thats just that character. And thats okay.

And we have a gay character who struggles with parents that pretend to be okay with it but are actually not and so the character struggles with his own coming out. But his friends? Never question him on it at all. They support, they try to understand, they try to help.
And how wonderful is that to see?
There is no need to try to "fix" anything because how could anyone fix that situation?
But being there of that character, trying to support and help him through the situation by simply making sure he knows everyone is there?
Thats so great to see!


And on top of all of that?
This book is filled with this fantastically wonderful type of dry humor that just works perfectly for me.

Its the type of humor that if you blink you miss it kind of humor!

Apparently, Drew hat no problem keeping two conversations going at the same time, one with me and one with the traffic jam. ...
"Are you kidding me?" he cried, sticker his head out the window. "The sign says STOP!" he yelled. "Not GIVE UP!" ....
"... Thank you!" he suddenly screamed at the cars in front of us as they began to crawl forward. "I was starting to worry that I should have packed a snack and a canteen just so i could drive three miles to Starbucks. ..." (page 189/190)

Is that something for everyone?
NO clearly not.
Not only isn't humor objective anyways, but this type of humor isn't as popular is the on the nose, very clear overly pointed out humor for some reason.

But i loved it.
I had moments in this book where i was actually laughing!

I can not remember the last book where i was actually sitting reading the book and having to laugh -out loud!- and not just smile or grin while reading.
So that clearly worked for me was well.

And lastly....
I loved how the kidnapping parts of this book where handled.
I won't spoil anything about that and that is why i haven't mentioned it so far, but i loved how it was handled from all sides and it felt very realistic to me.

For me this is a book i will continue to revisit and hope i will continue to love it each time.
Also this is clearly an author that i need to look more into because i love her way of writing!

If you are interested in this book after reading this ramble of a review?
Please do!
Just read it and i really hope you will love it as well!