As usual, LHA's writing in this novel is tight and somehow familiar--you feel good reading it; I don't know how else to describe it. She deals with the characters' trauma/PTSD gracefully and honestly, and I think the emotional resonance in the book comes through in a lasting way. I loved the Hayley/Finn romance--very cute, very real-feeling. I never quite latched onto the italicized war flashback sections, but I never am a big fan of deviations from the main teen's story in YA. The final scene at the quarry was one of the most crystal clear and haunting sections I can remember reading in an LHA book. That said, this was probably overall my least favorite of the LHA books I've read. Which is hardly a negative thing to say, really, but...it lacked the lasting gravity of Speak or Wintergirls, two books that I think about almost constantly and to which I feel drawn back to every time I think about rereading a favorite. I probably won't feel the urge to reread TIKoM any time soon.