I'm not 100% sure how to rate this book. While I can recognize its merits, it never personally resonated with me at all. 
 I'm slightly ashamed to admit that this is the first LHA book I've actually read (shhh, no one tell the other librarians). I can see why she gets the accolades that she does -- she knows how to tackle a tough subject with unflinching honesty and even some surprising humor, and her teenaged characters ring true as actual teenagers (zits and flaws and attitudes and all). 
 That said... I couldn't shake the feeling that this was a book written self-consciously by an adult for teens. And based on the reviews, and the author's other books' reputations, I fully expected this to be one of those emotional punch-in-the-gut stories that I've lately grown fond of... but it wasn't. Not a single tear was to be shed. And this is where I start to question my own perception of the book: was it really a little bit overhyped (it is, after all, the newest release of a well-loved novelist)? Or am I just an old curmudgeon who is too jaded to discern its true worth?