Shine

by Lauren Myracle

[nannah]

This book was so sad and beautiful.

More than that, the entire book, everything in and about it, was character-driven. It seemed real, not planned out and outlined, with little check-boxes ticked off. Each character was flawed, horribly flawed, and their interactions with each other, and themselves, were perfect and beautiful. I can't even describe how fleshed-out all these characters were, and how originally and perfectly they were presented and unfolded. The whole pacing with Cat's horrible encounter with Tommy, how the details trickle out a little more at each further mention was so well-done.

And then . . . and then I came to the part where the title suddenly made sense to me. I'm sure it happened at different times for different readers, but when it happened for me, I literally had tears in my eyes. I won't spoil anything about that, though.