Hm. I guess I didn't know what to expect, but this wasn't it. I like the idea of the story, 'a coming-of-age high school boys' book set in Texas in the 1950s. The story was very raw and quite brutal; surprising to me because it wasn't expected. It seemed like the author wrote it like he knew it, and didn't bother smoothing or glossing things over. The matter of fact way the story was presented will probably stay with me for a while; I'm still a bit shocked (the cow/human sex scenes keep coming to mind).