This was a hard book to put down. It captures those teenage angsty "why do I feel so many feelings!" moments so well, as the narrator starts high school, makes and loses friends, contemplates the point of it all (and how much he should "participate" in life), and discovers great books and perfect music along the way. For the last part, it takes place in the early 90's (which was when I was in high school) when people were still making each other mix tapes. Sweet nostalgia. 
 I found the narrator so engaging that, initially, I was able to look past the impressive concentration of Afterschool Special moments going on around him, but the end was a bit too much for me, and it all lost some of its authenticity. It felt melodramatic. Still, there's certainly a place for that and I do recommend the book if you're in the mood for a good angsty YA epistolary.