P.K. is a normal teen who loves to rock climb and whose parents just don't understand her. She's not doing well at her school where they focus on standardised tests and traditional classes, plus her parents don't like her non-conformist friends. So they want to send her to a nice boarding school where they believe that she will focus on classes and become a 'good' student. Her answer is to run away on a rock climbing trip, but none of her friends can go with her. Enter Critter. Critter is a patient in the psych ward and has been kept drugged up on various pills. He believes he doesn't need them and manages to skip doses and escape the hospital. The first night out he stops the gym where he and his father used to go rock climbing and there he overheads P.K. asking her friends to go with her. He volunteers when none of them will and the next morning off they go. A new take on a road trip story, the pair start out as strangers and get to know one another and for P.K. herself a bit better.
I liked this book for a lot of reasons. Short chapters and two very unique voices that both rang true were two of the first I discovered. The mix of mundane and dramatic details was another. I loved the fact that P.K. wasn't running from horrible, abusive or neglectful parents....just normal parents who loved her, but just didn't understand her or agree with her. She still loved them as well and in the end, even if everything wasn't perfect they all found a way to make peace and live with each other. Critter's story unfolds slowly as he reveals it to P.K., and is left open but hopeful at the end.
This one will be added to my list of favorites for the year, at least for now. It's definitely one that is worth the read.
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