What a wonderful book! 
 Demetrios manages to portray small town life with an honest clarity that is beautiful in its grittiness. It's so real and not romanticized. Even when Skylar starts to see Creek View as something other than a prison, it's still realistic. It was a great glimpse of how trapped someone can feel in their life, by their circumstances and lack of opportunity. 
 How someone who is strong can work to rise above that and build their own little boat of opportunity to sail to better land and find a new place for themselves. 
 How family and responsibility can become an iceberg that can sink that boat. 
 Skylar is strong and smart and ambitious, and she is inspirational as hell. To fight against the odds that were piled against her? Amazing. 
 "The moon's not big enough to wish on. Nothing is." 
 Josh's glimpses had my heart breaking at times. He is traumatized by the war, he lost friends and his leg and is stuck back in the tiny town that he had thought he had escaped forever. Skylar somehow helps him to come to terms with things that happened. His journey and progress was great to watch, his insecure moments really tugged at my heart. 
 I love how they were both going through hell and managed to make it an enjoyable journey. Because of each other. And they somehow pulled each other out of hell. 
 "It occurred to me that we were the same, in a way. Both of us treading water, pushing against forces we couldn't control." 
 "There's still some beer in this!" 
 "Well, then you better get it out of here before a cop pulls me over, huh?" 
 "You hick bastard." 
 "I love it when you talk dirty."