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jacobclark's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Stellar portrait of a youth group era a decade before I was a part of one. The prose is shockingly good even being chock-full of countless Christian subculture references. It runs the gamut of emotions and hits so many interesting beats that if you heard them would seem cliched — but if you read them, they feel so fleshed out and real. Every motivation of every character of every walk of life is fully realized: every character is three-dimensional. I don’t know how many people I know working in a church that would appreciate this book, but there are dozens of us and we should all read this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Drug use, Miscarriage, Islamophobia, Abortion, Outing, Alcohol, and War
Broadly speaking, because of the subject matter and setting in an American evangelical church youth group culture in the early 2000s none of the content is very shocking on its face. If you’ve been through that setting and have past trauma this could be either a liberating or suffocating read depending on your healing process. The worst part comes toward the end of the novel with a section where a youth pastor replicates the often-told story of people with guns coming into a church to scare kids into not denying their faith.