Alison Umminger writes about girls, sex, violence, and which people society deems worthy of caring about, which ones it doesn't, in a way not often seen in YA fiction. 
 For once, a book's blurb is actually worthy of its contents. 
 This book was surprisingly complex and enjoyable. Yes, I am a skeptic, but for good reason. I've largely stopped reading YA lately, but the premise of this one sounds weird enough, and the setting- Los Angeles- close to home enough to turn my eye. 
 Being the jaded Southern Californian that I am, I'm pretty wary, and weary, of books that are set in SoCal. The fact is that most books of this sort tend to sensationalize living in LA and Hollywood (spoiler alert from someone who's been there: it sucks, and downtown LA is nowhere near as impressive as TV shows and the red carpet would have you believe). 
 Therefore, a book set in LA, with a focus on the Hollywood culture and the Manson murders really, really had its work cut out to impress me. But impress me it did. 
 Fifteen year olds, with all due respects to the fifteen year olds out there, are fairly difficult to bear in fiction. I was one myself, many, many moons ago, and holy crap, I was fucking annoying. A fifteen year old narrator is a difficult thing to execute well, and the main character in this book, Anna, was very well-written, believably immature, and unique, without being grating. I felt like I understood her frustration, her fixation with certain things - like the Manson girls, her skeptical attitude towards her sister and most of the characters she meets in LA. 
 The book's depiction of LA was well-done. I don't live in LA proper, and with any luck, I never will, but I've been there often enough and I've worked there long enough to get a good feel of it. Yes, the book has strange characters, but what you have to understand about LA is that there are strange characters in LA. I've never lived anywhere else outside of SoCal except for my brief childhood in Vietnam, but from talking to my friends elsewhere, it's more acceptable to be different in LA. It is so diverse here, there are people from all walks of life, people who are straight, gay, etc. People who wear normal clothes. People who don't. One just doesn't even notice them anymore, because they're not a weird person. In LA, they're just a person. One doesn't consider the difference, because of all the diversity. In that sense, I don't find the book's depiction of LA outlandish. 
 Anna's obsession with the Manson murders may seem strange and morbid, but it actually turns out to be a great theme. There is an excellent commentary on the parallel between the lives of the Manson girls and the cost of fame in modern days. 
 Sharon Tate was just a name, or a beautiful blonde, or an actress, or the wife of a director, or another woman who really became famous only when her life was over. When she went from being a body on a screen to a body in a bag. I wanted the movie to bring her to life, but the camera seemed intent on making her nothing more than a beautiful face and a banging body. It didn't seem fair, not to her, at any rate. 
 It is a rare YA book that contains such depth in such a light manner.