How would I describe this? A slow-paced adventure? 
 I really got into this quirky family of Alligator wrestlers/theme park owners in Florida (time: 1980's) at the beginning. I loved the 1st-person voice of Ava, the youngest of the three kids, (about 13 yrs old). Home-schooled, (barely), like her brother and sister, Ava loves the alligator-wrestler's life, and is confident she can take over the show after her mom dies. She believes she can compete at a national level. She is desperate to believe something, because the family's way of life is now threatened because their main attraction (the mom) is gone. 
 I loved this beginning and also how things start spiraling out of control with the sister and the dad's debt. I didn't quite love the chapters from the brother's point of view. 
 Kiwi, the brother, goes to the mainland to find work and "save" the family's swamp. Every time the story switched from Ava's POV to Kiwi's, I was a little disappointed. It was good storytelling to see how backward Kiwi seemed to the "mainlanders," but we didn't need all of those chapters in his view. Just a few chapters in Kiwi's voice would have been enough. 
 There were some problems with the plot in the second half. Ava's journey to find her sister is very slowly paced, but the good news is that the writing is very good and keeps the reader involved. The climax with Ava is good. 
 *Spoilers coming up* 
 The poor ending has to do with Kiwi at the old folk's home beating up his demented grandpa (what?) and then becoming a pilot (overnight it seems) and making a perfect spontaneous emergency landing when he sees his sister. All of a sudden the family is re-united and everything is great? This does not fit with the rest of the story. 
 I would only give this book 3 stars if the writing wasn't so good in the Ava parts; so for that it gets 4. Also I wish Ava had kept her pet alligator. I am so sad that she lost it. Bad ending!