This is the story of Jesse, a high school girl who cuts her hair with a knife and wears ugly rubber boots, and Emily, the pretty blonde student council officer in the cardigan, who seem to be as different as night and day but are strangely attracted to each other.  At first the characters in this story seemed to me to be falling into one-dimensional stereotypes, and I thought I could see where the story was going.  But I kept reading because of the glowing comments from Laurie Halse Anderson - if she liked it, there had to be more there!  And there was. While there is, obviously, a strong lesbian storyline, it is not just about that.  All readers, regardless of sexual orientation) will find characters who struggle with the same things as they do (insecurities, indecision, fitting in, etc). As one reviewer said, if you believe in any cause and standing up to be counted, you will relate to the characters in this book.  If I had any criticism of this book, it would be that while there is a tolerance for all sorts of people and lifestyles, there is what has become the stereotypical Christian bad guy.  I would have liked to see the tolerance extended to all a bit more even-handedly or have him developed beyond that stereotype.  This young adult title would be better kept for high school audiences rather than middle schoolers due to several steamy encounters that might be a little much for younger students and/or their parents.