I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did, and I know a lot of people really loved it, which is great! It just didn't seem very special to me. 
 It felt very anti-climatic. The story, while touching, didn't hold my interest and it seemed to drag on for a while. I mean, the first 100 pages were just the backstory!? *yawn* Also, listen to the writing: 
 "We sit together outside the Fosters Freeze at a sea-green, metal picnic table. 
 All four of us. 
 We eat soft ice cream, which has been plunged into a vat of liquid chocolate (that then hardens into a crispy shell). 
 I don't tell anyone that what makes this work is wax. Or to be more accurate: edible, food-grade paraffin wax." 
 That gives you a little taste of the main character Willow's narration. And let me tell ya, it gets on your nerves after a while. Especially all those one-sentence paragraphs... eek. Willow's voice and precocious vocabulary actually annoyed me more than endeared me. 
 I also expected the book to focus more on her experience with school and being "different" and how she dealt with that and grew as a person. Instead, the entire second half of the book was mainly Willow moping and being angsty and depressed about her parents' death. Which is understandable. But it wasn't what I had in mind. The ending was a bit cheesy, too. The mood goes from being "Oh no, I miss my parents so bad and I have no idea what is wrong with me and will I ever feel okay again," to "Hip hip hurray! I'm going to live with my friends that I just met forever and everything will be just perfect," within one chapter. Bipolar much? 
 I have mixed feelings about this book. I don't regret the ten dollars I spent on it, but it wasn't a hit either. It was a cute, even if slightly obnoxious, story that shares a positive message about renewal and friendship in unlikely places.