White Oleander. Oleander is a beautiful flower. It's whiteness suggests a pure, innocent quality, but it is anything but innocent. Oleander is an extremely poisonous plant, and it works as a good symbol of Astrid's mother Ingrid. Ingrid is extremely beautiful, blonde, pale, tall, graceful. She makes men's heads turn. But she is also wrathful, manipulative, and a murderer. It's hard to see the good in Ingrid, but this book is so complex that the lines between good and bad blur. 
 What is known is that this book describes a desire to be loved. It's that clinging sensation humans feel to reach out and be touched and held and loved. Then there is the never-ending pain. Astrid learns that living equals pain, a pain that comes to her no matter where she goes. In some instances she seeks it. In some instances it just happens. But there is this strange relationship between Astrid and Pain. It's like she doesn't want to live in it, but she doesn't know any other way. Because of that, she identifies with her pain, and so, her misery and her self become inseparable. 
 It's interesting that the book can be so beautiful at times but then describe such gruesome, tragic events. There are some instances of the book that are downright disgusting if one stops to think about them. Yet it's how Astrid narrates her story, which causes the book to not feel as disgusting as one might expect to feel. It's slightly hard to explain. It reminds me of a starving, anorexic girl with pale skin, and bones sticking out of her arms and ribs. It's gruesome. It's tragic. But Astrid sees some deeper truth in that girl. It's like there is beauty and understanding, and tragedy mixed in with hope. Like I said, this book is entirely complex. 
 It's very intriguing how Astrid views the world. She sees beauty in the weeds, perhaps because she feels like a weed. She feels unwanted, and with reason because she is treated so horribly. Not many good things happen to her. Not many happy moments exist in this book. They do exist, but they're like gems hidden in broken shards of glass and one has to cut oneself a hundred times before one can find them and hold onto them, and only for a moment, where they have to be cast away just because that's the way the world works, and one finds oneself walking through the glass all over again. 
 So, overall, I really liked the book. The diction is really quite marvelous. Every sentence has a way about it, that lets you feel the emotions that Astrid feels. And the book really encompasses every emotion of the human spectrum. There is pain, and regret, and misery, and hope, and love, and fear, and despair, and paranoia, and disgust, and self-loathing, and confusion, and there is all these things, and in the end there is understanding, or at least a coming to an understanding, which is a nice change to the dark tempo of the novel. 
 Would I recommend this book? Most definitely. It has a special character to it. In other words, it is a unique book that one can also get lost in. The tragedy is not in your face, it is just like, art that is placed in front of you and is saying, "Here I am. Look at me. Observe. What do you see? What do you feel?" That's what it is. And like how art can be interpreted in so many ways, this book can be too. There are hidden truths in here. This book almost screams TRUTH! It's hard for me not to see it; it's hard for me not to feel it. So, it is 4 stars. I think it could have possibly have been 5 stars if I let myself become completely immersed in the novel. If I felt the pain and was right there with Astrid crying with her, it could have been a 5. I just couldn't let myself lose that much control of my emotions. I've felt my share of pain in my life, and I didn't want to feel that, not like how she feels it. So I looked at her story from a distance. Like I was looking at art on a wall. If one were to step into the painting and live through her life there with her, it would be unbearable almost. It would be too much pain. Yet despite being tragic, it really is a marvelous book.