So, I don't think I completely understood what this book would be. This quote in the synopsis seems to imply that this will also be a natural disaster, so I just kind of assumed that there was something "big" happening.
He prepared their family for every natural disaster known to man—except for the one that struck.
You see? It seems like maybe there was a huge flood, and Mom fled or... something. But that isn't what happened. So many things just made me mad at these parents. It's the epitome of "Parent-in-YA Syndrome" since Mom took off and Dad went to find her. There wasn't any particularly stunning revelation that made Mom leave home, she just was sick of the dad being an ass and also didn't want to live in some freaking shack in the woods. Speaking of, as I made notes on my Kindle, I called the dad "Daddy Douchecanoe" because that is what he was, and it was fun to find them while writing my review. Some examples? Sure!
Izzy, the younger sister, provides this gem:
"He also forbids us from doing all the things normal girls are supposed to do to better themselves, like getting our ears or anything else pierced, getting highlights, wearing cute clothes, or wearing shoes with any kind of heel."
Umm. WHAT? I don't know what it more rage-inducing- the fact that the dad is that controlling, or the fact that Izzy thinks that a bellybutton piercing is "bettering" herself. More on her later.
But really, Wolf, the random dude who lives in a tree, summed it up best while talking about Nicole:
"Her carefully planned and executed life thus far has only included the elements her father deemed appropriate, as far as I can tell."
The dad really needed a jar.
The mom leaving also didn't make sense to me. She leaves the girls this "Dear John" letter and peaces out, but what kind of mother would leave her children behind with a man who is clearly unhinged? Especially when the mom has to know that he is so messed up because she is leaving him herself.
Let's discuss the other characters, the ones that are actually in most of the book.
- Nicole. She is the older sister in this dysfunction-fest of a family. She listens to everything her dad has ever said, even though she kind of knows he is ridiculous and a huge jerk. She steps up to take care of Izzy when the parents decide that parenting is totally optional. She is the least infuriating character, basically. She discovers Wolf in the tree, and they start talking and junk. Nicole does develop as a character quite a bit throughout the book, which is nice.
- Izzy. It's wrong to hate children, right? Whatever, I hate Izzy. She is awful. First, she complains about every actual thing. Now, I understand the complaints about being abandoned by your parents in a shack in the woods with no running water. Please, complain away! But she complains about that, and so much more. And yes, she is supposed to be the younger sibling, but her ignorance is astounding. She uses the word "retarded" on the regular, which infuriated me, and she pops in with some fun little bits like this:"I know if I call CPS I will end up having to live in some gross home for teens or a foster home or something, and I'll probably get sexually abused, because that kind of thing always happens in those kind of places."
Now, good news is, Izzy grows a bit too. Not enough, because how could she even, but she does grow. - Wolf. Ah, Wolf. He has been in these woods for a long time, with his drug addict mom in some "spiritual community" or something. But he prefers building treehouses in the woods. For reasons. He hates his mom a lot, on account of the drug addiction and general shittiness at parenting. But he can't just calm down about it. He pretends he doesn't care, but then gets all fired up every time someone mentions her. Of course, the romance he has started with Nicole gives him a lot to think about too. Especially drama-filled lines like this:
"I want to know her in ways I cannot fathom, and it's an urge so powerful, I feel as if the energy of all humanity past and present is pushing me toward it."
So yeah. These three all had POVs, as did a much more minor character, Laurel. She was a friend of Wolf's, but I think she kind of wanted to date his mom? I don't know. She didn't even need to be in the book, let alone have a POV. Also, this will probably be fixed in the finished copy, but the names of Nicole and Izzy were switched quite a few times, and it really took me out of the story, because I had to keep checking to make sure I was not losing my mind.
And the ending, well, you know I don't like to say anything about it that isn't in spoiler tags so here you go: I actually wrote a note at the end that said "That's it? That was sure anticlimactic." In truth, I am not completely sure what the point of the book even was.
So, the positives? Yes, there were some! I liked that the girls especially underwent quite a bit of character development during the course of the book. I thought that the budding romance was cute, other than the few times I wanted to gag over Wolf's nonsense. And I was interested enough to see how things would turn out, especially since it is a quick read.
Bottom Line: The negatives did outweigh the positives, sadly. There were just too many things that left me scratching my head, and too many aspects of the story that I found downright unlikable. But the plot was quick and entertaining, so there's that.