A really interesting book that is dark and nuanced and complicated and hopeful - buy that is life and I'm sure the author's point. Life on Mars is full of stories about escaping from something and into something else. Sometimes people are escaping broken homes by pursuing estranged family, or broken relationships by chasing new ones, or escaping the anxiety of a doomed planet by saving one intelligent squid. The book will have a story for everybody. They may not be easy to read but they are well worth it.