Everyone in school knows Gerald. Not because he's popular--he's the opposite. They've been calling him "Crapper" since the reality show aired when he was a kid. The nanny show that his parents put the family on, the one that only captured the rage of a little boy who could only make his point by taking craps on the furniture, in his mom's shoes, between his sister's sheets. A decade later, Gerald has stopped crapping, but his family is still a mess. One sister--the good one, the one he likes--moved to Scotland to get away. The other lives in the basement and continues to abuse him at every opportunity. His mom protects Tasha. His dad does nothing. His Anger-Management Coach isn't a lot of help. Gerald's on the edge--and on that edge he confronts some very hard truths. 
 A.S. King keeps getting better. As a teen I'd have loved her books for the accurate depictions of teens, for her lack of coyness in showing their pain and troubles. As an adult, I love all that, but I'm also in awe of how well she writes deeply damaged parents. In all her books, the parents are flawed, and some of them manage to pull it together and some of them don't, and that's okay. They're people, for better or worse (usually worse...). 
 Anyway, I think it's time to admit AS King is one of my favorite authors.