I'm not surprised that I loved this book. Sarach Ockler is an exceptional writer. Who else could take cupcake making, parental abandonment, figure skating and hockey and turn in it into a riveting read?

The way this story embraces so many different types of relationships without loosing the strand is amazing.

I think what I enjoy the most about Ockler's writing is that her characters and settings are so realistic. The stories are engaging, yet the reader can stay connected to the characters because they are real people.

Addendum: Here are some examples of the fine writing that I especially loved:

"We're all gonna leave, right? Today, tomorrow, the next day, one day. Sometimes I imagine the great and final exodus, all of us wrapped in scarves and mittens and puffy coats, piling on the Erie Atlantic with two suitcases apiece, dousing the place in gasoline and tossing a match, hitting the tracks and never looking back."

"Dani passes me a cinnamon-smelling Mocha Morris from Sharon's Cafe, the cat-themed coffeehouse near school, and leans against the bench at Bluebird Park. On this cheery, once-a-decade winter anomaly, the sky is the color of sapphires and the entire world is covered in diamond dust, snow sparkling under the rare, white sun. A yellow lab bounds toward us and I lean forward to scratch behind his ears: I have to hold my drink above his head to keep him from slobbering it all up. "Feel better?" Dani asks. "A little."'

"Bug wraps his hands around the defenseless angel and twists her in half, ravaging her from halo to toe. He yanks off the wings. Pulls out clumps of spiderwebby hair. Rips at her cardboard dress. Crushes the paper towel roll body. In a final act of vengeance, he grabs her Styrofoam ball head, breaks it off at the neck and tosses it into my lap, scattering her other remains on the floor between us. The whole raging episode is over in fifteen seconds, and I wonder if this is one of those things that parents of serial killers look back on as a sign. Maybe it is. But when he turns to me and that ear-to-ear gap-toothed grin rises on his face like a sun on some distant planet, my heart melts. My little brother is just fine. Perfect, even."