3.5 stars 
 Angst. Wow, did this book have angst. And although I'm not a fan of angst, I was doing fine until about 3/4 of the way through and then it just became too much. (view spoiler)[When the mother came back and did what she did and Bear went along with it. (hide spoiler)] I liked all of the characters, but the internal dialogue got to be too much. I began skimming that part. But, I loved the Kid and found that there were many touching parts. Pretty good story, but I don't think that I want to read the sequel.