Reason read: on my Overdrive shelf since 2019. Free book from AudioSync File summer program. It is a young adult or juvenile book. The kids are a group of kids basically homeless or without parents caring for them in traditional ways. Two of the children are immigrants from Congo. They were in foster care for a while. Coco who is 11. Vic who has a condition that causes some paralysis to his face and he is struggling with the death of his father, Mad Falco and girl who has lost both of her parents. The story is basically a quest story. Vic is following a kind of scavenger hunt that he found in his dad's urn of ashes. This quest helps him learn about his parents and to come to acceptance of the death.

I liked some things about the book such as the story of dealing with loss and also the Congolese refugees. I did not like the excess use of ergo. Coco is annoying but I think an 11 y/o can be annoying. ( )

This is a book for 14 to 18 year olds and pure fiction. Its a murder mystery, who dunnit kind of book which I am sure teenager’s will absolutely love.

This book is harrowing at times but has you smiling in other parts. The characters are great and a real mismatched group of kids. I liked how we get to know a little about each of these children and what they have been through.
Thank you to the publishers and bookbridgr for this book xx ( )

"We are all part of the same story, each of us different chapters. We may not have the power to choose setting or plot, but we can choose what kind of character we want to be." (p. 104)

"I think [she] saw in books what I saw in art; the weightless beauty of the universe." (p. 111) ( )

Everything I loved about the first one except over done. He's pushed his sophomore effort too far. Perhaps the third one will be back to more like [b:Mosquitoland|18718848|Mosquitoland|David Arnold|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402661616s/18718848.jpg|26584442]. ( )

This might be a good fit for kids who like [b:The Perks of Being a Wallflower|22628|The Perks of Being a Wallflower|Stephen Chbosky|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1438668337s/22628.jpg|2236198]. The characters were interesting, and the framing of the story worked really well, I think. That said, this really isn't my genre. I very, VERY rarely enjoy realistic YA. So I kind of hated this book, while still liking some pieces of the story. I'm a sucker for the families we make for ourselves, and this whole story is one big epic tale of a found family. But also the prose was not to my taste AT ALL. So it was like a war between passages I disliked and heartfelt character exchanges I found sweet.

I'm reviewing from an uncorrected proof, so this quote may change, but an example of some of the prose I disliked includes the 16-year-old guy character thinking: "The orchard reminded me of this: an old man's youthful heart." I just cannot with that. On the plus side, there was an exchange on page 99 (maybe? Again, uncorrected proof.) where new friends offer help when it's needed that was genuinely moving and lovely. I actually teared up a bit. But then there were several other specific pages I flagged for the way I REALLY disliked a turn of phrase or bit of text. I usually only mark out bits I love in texts, but I disliked some parts so strongly I couldn't not mark them to go back to and confirm my dislike. It's held up on multiple re-readings of these passages. I can't tell if it's just my dislike of the genre overall, or if it's this writing in particular that I'm having such a negative reaction to. OH WELL.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to recommend this to our teens, but for my personal taste I think it falls squarely in the ugh, NO category. If you enjoy realistic stories, it might be a YES for you though, maybe?

I received a digital ARC from the publisher for review. And, slightly related, I actually requested it for review based on the cover. I really like the cover!