This one is a tough read. I had to pause for a while in the middle, but managed to power through one sad patch to make it to many more tense and sad moments. 

There was a real 'wowie zowie' Paul Zindel-esque quality to this book set in the summer of 1973. I would be interested to hear what younger audiences thought about that aspect of the book. (Especially as I don't think many kids these days are reading Zindel.)

I did cry a couple times; it's really hard not to. Jonathan is in a real tough situation, and meeting Web, his love interest, only makes it tougher. Web is Native American and we get a lot about that, much of it being slurs from white townsfolk, which is hard to read, though no doubt how it was.

Definitely check out the content warnings for this book before reading it, to make sure you're in the right frame of mind.