This reminds me a little of The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin because of the way the tension and subtlety of family stress or trauma is so perfect. Fans of John Greene, Sarah Dessen, Nicola Yoon, or any sad realistic fiction would love this. ( )

A story of two girls living in a home with their mother who struggles to keep food in the fridge and leave drugs off her plate. Dad comes back into the girls' life which leads to sisters on a road trip and discovery of what their future could be. ( )

4.5

“Alicia says dealing with people that were sometimes good to you in the midst of being bad is like digging through piles of dog shit with your bare hands to find a couple of tiny nuggets of gold and no one wants to do that.”

This book was heart wrenching in its reality. It is a story of sisterly love, commitment to family and how it conflicts with your commitment to yourself and your own happiness. Though the writing is simple, behind it there is so much complexity. I think readers who lived in or can empathize with life in these types of households will find something to relate to. ( )

Learning what's right and wrong, what's real or not and how you fit in the world are challenging for most teens. When you grow up with an addicted mother and a father who is both emotionally and physically absent, the challenges are even greater. Meet Gem. The only seemingly stable thing in her life is the relationship with her younger sister Dixie, but how real is her perception of it?
Over a short period following their father's unexpected reappearance, she gets to find out after she and Dixie take off with a stash of cash that supposedly belongs to their dad. That journey doesn't take them far in terms of physical distance, just around Seattle and to a nearby island, but the emotional and insightful distances the sisters travel is much longer and extremely painful. I had to set the book aside for a time before finishing it. That's not a criticism, but a tribute to how well the author portrays Gem's gradual realizations about family connections, especially those with her sister. Anyone who picks this book to read should be prepared to feel strongly. While sad, the ultimate place Gem and Dixie reach works well for each of them. A definite should add for school and public libraries. ( )

Gem, 17, and Dixie, 14, are two sisters who live in Seattle with extremely dysfunctional parents. The dad is currently absent and the mom is just barely around; she drinks, takes drugs, brings home boyfriends, and hardly provides for the kids. Gem feels with justification that it is she who is the caretaker of the home and her little sister. She feels like she is in a cage:

“The cage was Mom. The cage was Dad. The cage was our apartment, the empty fridge, the trips to the dark laundry room. The cage was Dixie - pushing her in her stroller and walking her to school and feeding her and dressing her and keeping her busy when she was scared, entertained when she was bored. The cage was me being responsible for all of it, all of them, being the responsible one in the family as far back as I could remember.”

In school, Gem meets often with the high school psychologist, Mr. Bergstrom. He is sympathetic, but Gem is reluctant to open up too much to him. But Gem is feeling more and more lack of control. Dixie has drawn apart from Gem, scorning her at school. At home, Dixie is pretending their mom is one of their friends, “another girl with boyfriend drama and body issues and money problems.” Now Dixie alone has gotten a letter from their dad. Gem feels isolated and lonely. She just wants “to have something that someone, anyone, wanted.”

In the letter to Dixie, their dad said he was coming to see them, and he does come by when their mom is out. Gem wants to resist his pull but it’s so hard. She wants a dad, any dad, so much. And she wants a home that feels “like home should feel. Safe. A place you go where you know there won’t be any bad surprises and you can be even more who you are, not less.”

But dad’s return makes home anything but safe, and just might be the catalyst Gem needs to break out of her cage.

Evaluation: Sara Zarr is a wonderful author for young adult books. She understands teen angst and hope and love. Gem and Dixie are quite flawed, but Zarr manages to arouse reader sympathy for them nevertheless. This is an affecting story with the resiliency of the girls tempering the sadness of their situation. ( )