For a first book, I think this is fantastic. Also, I applaud the author for trying to grapple with race in several fruitful ways. While Nate is an over-the-top depiction of white person with barely controlled filters on his internal racism, that makes his character a great opportunity to depict white angst about the deep discomfort around navigating the world without offending others. It also allows for the deconstruction of racist rhetoric -- these are good tools, well used.

That being said, it just didn't knock my socks off, and I have no useful critique as to why. I think some of it is Nate's absolute isolation, which made me uncomfortable. Everything about his situation seemed unnecessarily harsh, and the way that all the agencies that should have been helping him failed him was really depressing. Probably accurate, but really depressing. It's also, to be honest, a very dramatic book -- and to be fair, the stakes are high, Nate is a deeply ambivalent character, even to himself -- but there's a level of teen histrionics that I found accurate but annoying. Sorry, I know, I'm an adult, it wasn't written for me. I think perhaps I've been hitting too many improving literature sorts of books and I need to go embrace some brain candy. ( )

teen fiction (white teen escaping neo-nazi compound in the modern-day South)
a point of view we don't hear much from; the author has lived in the south and done research, and I thought this was well done. A slower read, because the subject is so weighty. ( )

Absolutely amazing. ( )

Enjoyed the book as a whole, but I did find myself wishing for some snappier pacing in the first half, or at least for some of the characters to shed their somewhat transparent facades (not an insult, just common in YA books).
I greatly respect the author for taking on a topic that no one else is, and for writing from a perspective that few probably can. I typically find that female authors struggle with getting male main characters right. I think Henson has done this the best of any book I’ve read.
Large jumps in time are often made in the book with varying success.
Would recommend to teenage audiences. Warning of references to Neo-Nazi activities necessary. ( )