The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. Lange’s skillful writing holds readers’ interest for most of the novel, but it can’t rescue the flat ending. Despite ample evidence that Billy’s less than truthful, Dane repeatedly jeopardizes his own future to accommodate Billy’s peculiar demands and assertions without first confirming them. Dane’s mother barely supports them teaching yoga and Pilates yet won’t cash in thousands of dollars in lottery winnings, instead turning the tickets into wall art. As he’s not confused about what pushes his buttons, his violent episodes appear coldly deliberate. Billy’s exceptionally high-functioning, but he’s selfish Dane’s adult intelligence and self-knowledge work against him. Dane agrees to teach Billy to fight, but Billy’s efforts to find his father go nowhere. Soon Seely, a pretty skateboarder, joins the quest. Billy manipulates Dane into helping, saying his dad planted clues to his whereabouts in Billy’s atlas. Billy is obsessed with finding his dad, but Dane tells himself he has no interest in finding his. Dane’s anger management issues (he blows off steam beating up the rich kids who taunt him at his Columbia, Mo., high school) have caught up with him to avoid expulsion and exile to the alternative school, he agrees to mentor Billy D., a student with Down syndrome.īoth are outsiders, sons of financially challenged, single mothers.
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