Oh my gosh there were some tough moments in this book. In this case tough means good. Here I go again attributing emotional moments to how much I am affected by a book. That doesn't happen every time, but when done right the hard places in a book only serve to make it better. A place in a story I won't forget. A feeling that hangs with me for awhile afterward. And you know what makes the tough moments incredibly poignant? The healing moments, and the joyful that sometimes follow them. This book was beautiful because of that. It's not to say that everything was perfect here. Arthur, Charlene and Kel make some choices that you may not like. I didn't. But I realized that their choices were real. Perfect only exists in fairy tales. Reality means people make mistakes. 
 I was about to end my review there, but I want to add a word about Moore's writing. Exceptional. Without realizing it, I felt that I stood alongside these characters. In Arthur Opp's home. In Kel Keller's car. On Charlene's floor. At a point in the book, Moore changes her first person narrative from Arthur to Kel, and I said, "Oh no", because I really liked listening to Arthur's voice and because I'm resistant to abrupt change. But guess what? 10 pages with Kel, and I had forgotten that thought completely. 
 One more thing. Any book that can make me cry, or level me flat, usually gets 5 stars.