This wasn't quite what I expected.

Lou, thirteen years old, tells her story about how she got to know No, a homeless girl, and how their relationship developed in such a sober and dry manner that you are somehow baffled by it.

Still, the writing does not lack emotions or feelings and there is such beautiful prose behind this soberness; I had tears in my eyes reading this.

I was at first hesitant to read it because I'm not a big fan of translations. But since my French isn't as good as my English, I tried reading the translated version into the English language. The translator did such a great job; there were only few words or phrases where I was reminded that this was a translation, but other than that I loved reading it.

Lou is a clever and interesting character; she wants to see everything that goes on in the world: the good and the bad. She has her morals and she sticks to them; I really liked that about her.

No is a bit more difficult to describe; she had a hard life and that led her to live and roam the streets. What I didn't really like about her was how she didn't really try to change although everyone around her tried to reintegrate her into society. Maybe it was because of her history, but it seems true sometimes: some people just don't change.

There wasn't enough of Lucas in the story; I would have liked to know more about his story, his parents and his ambitions. Although I was quite happy that there wasn't that big romance hovering above him and Lou. In my opinion romance was not necessary in this storyline and I thought that the author did a good job of telling the story the way she did.

I loved the setting of Paris; it made me feel nostalgic and I loved the Frenchmen and the cafés and the Métro and just everything about it.

This was a very powerful contemporary YA novel and there was so much story within these 246 pages; I adored it.