Maria finally gets a chance to live in New York City with her mom, who left her dad a million years ago because Millcreek, South Carolina was stifling for her art. At first she's stuck in a stifling prep school but eventually she gets home schooled by Nina, a friend of both her mother's and grandmothers (shocking). She finally makes a (boy)friend and she thinks she's got a handle on things. Except her mom's never really around, she spends more time with Travis (mom's boyfriend) then mom and Mom's behavior is a little bipolar; ecstatic one minute, angry and annoyed the next.

I thought for sure this was going to go in an ugly Travis/Maria direction. While for a second it did, it didn't get as bad as I thought it would and it only stopped there on the way to much bigger issues. This is definitely one of those hard lessons of life books. Everyone gets caught in their little white lies but even still it's the bigger secrets that will break us. Vic (mom) is so easy to like and she seems like so much fun but she's so erratic and while I was expecting the bigger picture to be something different (like mental disorder) anyone with sense could see that something was wrong.

The setting of this book is back when I was in middle school. It was the tail end of grunge and punk. That nostalgia factor was nice. I haven't thought about making mix tapes in a million year but the music is definitely what tied this all together for me. I would have loved specific lists for each of the mix tapes although lots of teens today barely have a clue who Kurt Cobain was so I can see why it wasn't included. ( )

Maria finally gets a chance to live in New York City with her mom, who left her dad a million years ago because Millcreek, South Carolina was stifling for her art. At first she's stuck in a stifling prep school but eventually she gets home schooled by Nina, a friend of both her mother's and grandmothers (shocking). She finally makes a (boy)friend and she thinks she's got a handle on things. Except her mom's never really around, she spends more time with Travis (mom's boyfriend) then mom and Mom's behavior is a little bipolar; ecstatic one minute, angry and annoyed the next.

I thought for sure this was going to go in an ugly Travis/Maria direction. While for a second it did, it didn't get as bad as I thought it would and it only stopped there on the way to much bigger issues. This is definitely one of those hard lessons of life books. Everyone gets caught in their little white lies but even still it's the bigger secrets that will break us. Vic (mom) is so easy to like and she seems like so much fun but she's so erratic and while I was expecting the bigger picture to be something different (like mental disorder) anyone with sense could see that something was wrong.

The setting of this book is back when I was in middle school. It was the tail end of grunge and punk. That nostalgia factor was nice. I haven't thought about making mix tapes in a million year but the music is definitely what tied this all together for me. I would have loved specific lists for each of the mix tapes although lots of teens today barely have a clue who Kurt Cobain was so I can see why it wasn't included. ( )

Maria finally gets a chance to live in New York City with her mom, who left her dad a million years ago because Millcreek, South Carolina was stifling for her art. At first she's stuck in a stifling prep school but eventually she gets home schooled by Nina, a friend of both her mother's and grandmothers (shocking). She finally makes a (boy)friend and she thinks she's got a handle on things. Except her mom's never really around, she spends more time with Travis (mom's boyfriend) then mom and Mom's behavior is a little bipolar; ecstatic one minute, angry and annoyed the next.

I thought for sure this was going to go in an ugly Travis/Maria direction. While for a second it did, it didn't get as bad as I thought it would and it only stopped there on the way to much bigger issues. This is definitely one of those hard lessons of life books. Everyone gets caught in their little white lies but even still it's the bigger secrets that will break us. Vic (mom) is so easy to like and she seems like so much fun but she's so erratic and while I was expecting the bigger picture to be something different (like mental disorder) anyone with sense could see that something was wrong.

The setting of this book is back when I was in middle school. It was the tail end of grunge and punk. That nostalgia factor was nice. I haven't thought about making mix tapes in a million year but the music is definitely what tied this all together for me. I would have loved specific lists for each of the mix tapes although lots of teens today barely have a clue who Kurt Cobain was so I can see why it wasn't included. ( )

Maria finally gets a chance to live in New York City with her mom, who left her dad a million years ago because Millcreek, South Carolina was stifling for her art. At first she's stuck in a stifling prep school but eventually she gets home schooled by Nina, a friend of both her mother's and grandmothers (shocking). She finally makes a (boy)friend and she thinks she's got a handle on things. Except her mom's never really around, she spends more time with Travis (mom's boyfriend) then mom and Mom's behavior is a little bipolar; ecstatic one minute, angry and annoyed the next.

I thought for sure this was going to go in an ugly Travis/Maria direction. While for a second it did, it didn't get as bad as I thought it would and it only stopped there on the way to much bigger issues. This is definitely one of those hard lessons of life books. Everyone gets caught in their little white lies but even still it's the bigger secrets that will break us. Vic (mom) is so easy to like and she seems like so much fun but she's so erratic and while I was expecting the bigger picture to be something different (like mental disorder) anyone with sense could see that something was wrong.

The setting of this book is back when I was in middle school. It was the tail end of grunge and punk. That nostalgia factor was nice. I haven't thought about making mix tapes in a million year but the music is definitely what tied this all together for me. I would have loved specific lists for each of the mix tapes although lots of teens today barely have a clue who Kurt Cobain was so I can see why it wasn't included. ( )

I'm not sure I'm ready for 90s nostalgia but this was really good. full review to come. ( )