I liked this book, but at first, I did not like the narrator. But, as I got to know him, I began to realize that some, if not most of his behavior issues as a boy were not choices, but rather circumstantial. I look at people I've known through the years who have luckily had one constant in their life and see how different they grow up to be versus those that don't. Toby's mother was that one constant. She wasn't just a mother, but was often a comrade as they battled their way through the dangers of Dwight's violence and dysfunction. As many reviewers, it is hard for me to pinpoint what I liked about the book other than it spoke to me in a manner that was both self-reflective and sympathetic for people I am close to that grew up with childhoods of this nature.