It is difficult to write at length about so short a book, and especially so insofar as young adult novellas seem to take care not to offer too many gaps for analysis to seep into. This one in particular seems designed as a needlepoint sampler of freshman English concepts: imagery, symbolism, character development, etc., and will serve reliably in that capacity. All of this is to say that it was a nice book, but not literature.
One way, however in which I can picture this book standing out to students is the author's level of comfort with discomfort. It would be to much to ask that such a novella blow itself apart in a blaze of deconstructionist glory--it must satisfy, after all--but it comes very close several times. It goes deeper and more unforgivingly into the rage of a young man, and offers a theme that is both uncommon and useful: redemption.
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