I can't believe how difficult it is to order now, there is no place to put something in a cart, it is all about this kindle stuff. I want to place an order and cannot fiqure it out. There is nothing in the Help dept. and no where to put these two books in to my cart.

First, I'd like to say that to everyone who said this story was far from unrealistic, and so were the characters, I bet you're sitting in a nice comfortable chair right now in the comfort of your suburban home where children can safely play outside with their friends and everyone is provided for financially and everyone is well adjusted and fits into the "social norms" of our superficial world.

But I've seen first hand what it's like to be in a dysfunctional family. Granted, my family isn't nearly as bad as this. There's no incest nor is there murder. But I can understand the threat.

Also, I'd like to warn you, this review does contain spoilers for the story, so if you don't want to be spoiled, stop right here and go on to the next review. Oh, and speaking of this, be careful reading any reviews before reading the book. I read some before I read it and I got spoiled for the ending which totally took the impact of the twist away. So, ye be warned.

I absolutely love how Tawni painted Harvey. Here's a 19 year old boy who's struggling with the death of his abusive father, the incarceration of his mother, and having to raise his three younger sisters. Jody's a sweetheart, but he fears her being in this environment will make her end up like her two older sisters. Misty is a psycho. Understandable? Yes. And everything points back to their father. But she's pretty screwed in the head. And Amber's a little tramp, pulling a kind of Cruel Intentions and going after the one person she can't have.

I loved the dark twistedness of this story. Here Harvey was, having sex with a married woman with two young children, trying not to let Amber take advantage of him, and trying to stay sane as he works two or three (not sure which) full time jobs so they can barely scrape by.

By the end, I feel so bad for him. After going through everything, he finds his peace by being locked up? Especially for admitting to a crime his skank of a sister committed and for her finally taking advantage of him. That just sucks. But the characters are written in a way to where even though they do horrible things, the reasons behind them are very realistic and make you feel sorry for them.

I definitely recommend this book. If you're a sucker for a story that doesn't have a happy ending and is pretty much as realistic as it gets, then this is the story for you.

Tawni O'Dell writes a fantastic story, and this is my favorite. No sense rehashing the plot. What makes this book brilliant is her insight into the plight of a young man saddled with all the baggage of his lower class background in rural western Pennsylvania. As the plot twists and turns, Harley does his best, but he's up against the tide. O'Dell portrays his descent into madness with compelling prose. She also captures the atmosphere better than most anyone.

I think of myself as being extremely wordy and even I can't think of enough horrible things to say about this book. The story is just angry and dirty and the characters are hateful and hopeless. I have no problem peppering my library with a little dysfunction every now and then, but I actually finished this book feeling like a worse person. The plot (if you can even say there is one) literally amounts to nothing.
The only thing this author got right was picking out the cover image; a dismal, depressing road that leads to nowhere.
Rating: One "trillionth" of a point.
Suggested With: A pair of running shoes, a jet pack, a concord plane, anything that will get you the hell away from this book as fast as possible.

The characters in this book remind me of some charachters that were in the movie "Deliverance" The writing is good but sometimes hard to follow when the main character Harley has flashbacks of bits and pieces of childhood memories. It was hard for me to figure out if there was child abuse the author gives you hints but it's very vague. There are some disturbing themes in this book which doesn't surprise me given the title,setting and family history. The ending could have been better.