Mary Ann Levan

Overwhelming authorial point that any life experience, however brutally scarring, can be healed through "opening up to the kindness of others" is unrealistic and trite. The grand denoument, also, was clear as early as chapter 2. The book belittles the damage that hurtful families inflict on children and the near impossible challenge of psychological recovery.

One of those books that wins a prize for theme and not execution. Despite Powell using a character to tell the reader that the way to change opinions is to "tell a story" and not to "give information", this books fails mightily as a compelling story.