All Manner of Things by Susie Finkbeiner--still deciding if I should round up or down

[Karin]

This is a 3.5 star read for me, and I haven't decided if I should round it up or down yet. I liked it better in the latter half than the first half. I think if it had been advertised as young adult that would have changed my expectations--it is very good for a young adult novel.

This is set in 1967-1968. Annie's brother enlists in the army to avoid being drafted and ends up being a medic. Her father has been gone for 12 years because he thought he couldn't be a good father to his three children or a good husband due to his PTSD from the Korean War. When her grandfather dies, her father comes to the funeral. This does no justice to the plot or story.

While much of this has to do with hurt and loss, there are other things in it as well. A kind young black man moves to their white community and becomes friends with Annie because he can't cook and comes to the diner where she works every day for lunch. (The owner of the diner also is a veteran who deals with war memories.) That said, there is light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.