by Selene Castrovilla
ages: 14+
First sentence: “The taxi’s spinning wheels spit pebbles and dirt as it left me behind at the marina’s gate.”
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Review copy sent to me by a publicist.

The question is not what is in this book, but what isn’t.

We start with Parental Abandonment: 15-year-old Willow is off to spend the summer with her somewhat crazy aunt, helping her turn a dilapidated barge into a floating concert hall, because her mother — who isn’t the cream of the crop herself (add Bad Mother to the list) — basically kicked her out to spend time with a new boyfriend.

Add to that Eating Disorders — Willow thinks she’s “fat”, and won’t eat anything but carrots. Seriously.

Then comes lech Craig into the picture, and with Willow’s low self-esteem (due to the above problems), she’s willing to do just about anything with Craig… which leads to Sexual Assault, Beating, and near-Rape.

Thankfully she’s got a kindred spirit in Axel, the 18-year-old on the boat next to the barge. He manages to find a way to talk to Willow — even though he was quite plastered on vodka during their first “real” meeting — and begin to reach her. He also manages to interrupt the rape-in-progress, and helps Willow begin to heal from that. Turns out, though, that he’s got a pretty crappy history himself: Rape (by a much older woman), Sexual Abuse, Parental Neglect (from father)… which leads him to cutting and suicide attempts.

Isn’t this book a bundle of joy?

There is a hopeful ending, which kinda sorta makes up for all the crap, but upon closing the book, I found myself incredibly cranky and peevish. Perhaps it’s just me, but the balance was off: too much crap and not enough hopeful resolution. The ending also felt a bit off — most of the book takes place over the course of a few weeks, and the last two chapters cover more than a year. That may have added to the awkwardness I felt near the end.

That said, it was a very engrossing book: I managed to read it in one sitting (mostly; I kept having to put the book down when it got too depressing!). It’s just a little too much doom and gloom for my taste though.