A Surprise Gem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                I picked up this unheard of novel, because the issues it tackles intrigued me.  I really did not know what to expect, especially when I discovered it is actually a Young Adult book.  But that group, and myself, may find the story upsetting and disturbing.  And not being above shedding a tear or two.

                                 In small town America, where the sensitive are psychologically bled and torn apart, two boys, Adam Blake and Julian, a boy whose parents died years ago in a car accident and is being raised by an uncle who turns out to be one sick fuck, are joined together in high school.  Julian is bullied, for his love of a children's book series, at 14, and just being different, in general.  The two of them form a bond, with Adam introducing Julian to high school culture, even making friends with his group, and on his own.  What the two don't know, that Adam's mother does, is the set of terrible circumstances having separated them years before, when they were too young to remember, when Mrs. Blake and Adam were fostering Julian, who was happy, but was removed from them by his mother's brother, Russell, who was a legal relative.  So, when the two boys bond years later, they have no idea having known each other before.  Because they don't remember,

                                  Robin Roe, in her debut novel, captures the relationship between these two boys beautifully.  Julian's horrors are not graphic, but teens and adults will quickly figure out where this is going, what Uncle Russell's intentions are, and will despise him.

                                    Roe claims a real life basis for this book, and I am curious about that.  She also runs an organization to help troubled teens, and I commend her on both this and her skill at writing this book.  She stands to be a potentially helpful, and compelling voice, in the Young Adult genre, and one should have no qualms about reading her.

                                      I wonder what she'll do next?????????????????

                                      Meantime, you MUST read this, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!