Brilliant rendered with a seemingly studious eye for interactions and psychology of the various adolescence peopled in this narrative. This stands out especially for the ways in which the protagonist reacts to her friend.

Their life movements are very believable and astute. Alternating between the sea and a bluff, the two continually shape one another but often, without meaning to, by the grating of miscommunication and misunderstandings that are so pronounced in the(arguably) most formative years of a life.

The contrast between them is really interesting because it’s also first person narration, and so inherently unreliable. The white space is very interesting. It feels like memory; transitory but in small instances very pronounced and vivid. Other times events skate by. I feel like this made it more believable than authors who try to fill in every granular detail. It feels impossible and places a lot of difficulty on the suspension of disbelief area. Do they have an eidetic memory? Also, the voice is convincing. It straddles sounding much older, looking at reflection, and so able to have a much more refined and not annoying, as these often trend to be, with YA voice.

Not all that much actually happens with the length of the novel but I loved the experience of listening to this. The narrator was excellent and I was really quite happy to hear about absolutely anything happening. People who want a really pronounced plot won’t like this, though. Sweeping, this is not, either—as a lot of coming-of-age readers might expect. But again, it’s all compelling to me. There is character growth and psychology and plenty of tension. Will try the next, without a doubt.