I'm a pretty big fan of Emily. That really shouldn't surprise anyone due to her ability to combine literary fiction and noir together. These are the types of things that appeal to my interests. Her work reminds me of Dan Chaon, who is one of my favorite writers. Like Chaon's brilliant Await Your Reply, Mandel's book is structured beautifully and has plenty of suspense, thus making it a hard one to put down. 
 Mandel's prose is always good but the characters here are what I especially loved. Their identities are in flux and they are struggling to live with who they are versus the person they saw themselves becoming in the future. Their grip on the truth is not exactly ironclad and the book brings to mind some questions regarding memory. 
 When the tantalizing plot and the great structure of the book have completely unfolded, Gavin is left with a very difficult decision. As he makes his best efforts to do the right thing, I couldn't help but think about how quickly our teenage innocence can be lost and forgotten.