I appreciated the flow of the free verse style throughout this book, but unfortunately, it didn't work for me. While it was an interesting format to read in, the structure didn't seem to add to the story itself. None of the characters felt likeable and it made the book a struggle to read through. I think Maisie's mother felt a bit too cartoonishly evil, and while I know this book is marketed toward a younger audience I feel it would have been more interesting to read about an abusive mother who isn't always plain evil but rather something darker with more nuance. This might appeal to a very early YA reader but it just wasn't a book that worked for me.

So. That was definitely something. Yeah.

I didn't know much about this going into and I didn't realize it was told in free verse (or I did but eventually forgot by the time I got around to reading this, not sure which). So I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was. I used to read a lot of free verse books but I haven't read one in probably over a decade and really fell in love with the format once again. It did take a little getting used to as the sentences came off as blocky in the beginning, but once I got used to it I really loved it and found it beautifully written.

I also loved that this is a very character driven story. I'm especially partial to character driven stories already but when you have a format and a story like this I think it especially works well. In this case there really isn't much of a plot but I didn't mind it. I didn't particularly love Maisie as a character and I feel like if you need to love characters to enjoy stories you're not going to like this, but I didn't get the impression that you were supposed to love her anyway. I definitely felt for her and understood her and where she was coming from, but I didn't love her and in this particular case I was okay with that.

I do wish the ending was a little less... abrupt. It seemed to wrap up too quickly and too nicely. Don't get me wrong I wanted that for Maisie and her brother, but once it happened there wasn't enough talk about the aftermath for me and it just came off as really rushed because of it. I think another five or ten pages would have really helped the conclusion feel more complete.

Other than that I found this really beautiful and heartbreaking and it's definitely worth giving a shot.

I received an electronic ARC from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group through NetGalley.
Told in poetry that captures the gamut of emotions the main character feels. Maisie is fourteen to start the book and moves into her fifteenth year as the story progresses. Her home life is horrendous - absent traveling father; abusive mother. By the end, she has started healing and coming out of her rage and nasty treatment of everyone including herself.
Though it's set in the 1960's, sadly, the story is timeless. Abuse is often hidden and the victims blamed. The various poetry styles tell the story from Maisie's eyes. She's not likeable, and isn't meant to be. My problem was that I felt the author could have done more to bring readers in. She told us about the characters but didn't bring them off the page.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I'm surprised at the lower average rating for this book. I found it poignant, honest, and real. I think the prose style writing was brilliant and the best way for Maisie who finds art the best way to get her emotions out and escape the horrors for her daily life. I felt like I really got to know Maise and understand exactly what she was dealing with through her eyes. I loved getting to know the characters too, who helped Maisie along the way. This is a heartbreaking story with light at the end of the tunnel. In the author's own words, "we never know who or what will rescue us, or how we will rescue ourselves"

I have mixed feelings about this book.

Things I loved: the book is written in a verse format that I thought I wouldn’t like but ended up thinking worked incredibly well and made the perspective of the main character, Maisie, particularly “real” to me. I liked the way the story flowed from chapter to chapter, almost as though the chapters were an afterthought but also gave meaningful structure to the whole.

Things I didn’t love: the characters, including Maisie, although authentic enough, were not very likable. I found it hard to get very invested in what happened to any of them. Even Maisie and Davy who are clearly abused and traumatized by an out-of-control mother are not portrayed in a way that makes me really care deeply about their outcome. For me, the pacing was off and while I enjoyed the beginning and ending, I found the book very sluggish and almost repetitive in the middle.

I recommend this book if you are interested in the first person verse form deployed in a particularly effective way or prefer themes of family dysfunction, emotional and physical abuse amidst teen coming-of-age stories. For those who are sensitive to these issues, there are a fair number of triggering scenes in this book.

Thank you to the publisher & Netgalley for this eARC.

This book was so much... I’m not sure I have words for it. Maisie is a complex character. One that you both love and are frustrated by on every page.

Written in verse, Maisie’s story goes quickly and is hard to put down. If you’ve ever been in a dysfunctional family, if you’ve ever been a confused teen, this novel will speak to you and stay in your head.

I see I liked this book better than the other two reviewers here so far. When I read YA books, I generally keep in the back of my mind a scale that rates the book as to how relevant I think it might be for any of my students. With this book, I wasn't entirely sure which students would find interest in the book and perhaps purpose to go on the adventure. Being an art teacher, I guess I was won over by Maisey's love of art. I didn't feel the protagonist took good care of her friends. In fact, she seemed far more likely to neglect them than to nurture them unless she had something to gain. The "verse" of the book that others have complained about was not a problem for me at all. Since it is free verse it is quite easy to read and no problem whatsoever. Never did I feel that it took from the story at all. But then again, it didn't really add to it either. I did enjoy the story. I would not have wanted a best friend like Maisie even though in the end, her determination was admirable.

My biggest difficulty with this book is that I'm generally not a huge fan of books written in verse. However, it was a very wrenching portrayal of a girl with an abusive mother, just trying to get by.

1.5*
I did not enjoy this book…at all. I wanted to (because I love stories told through free verse) and I tried (I did not abandon it even though I really, really wanted to be done).
It was not all bad…

What I liked:
References to Art/Artists and museums of NYC; references to Hungarian culture/traditions; some of the chapters are really great—I especially enjoyed the letters between the characters—and Maisie has a sarcastically, witty mouth.

What bothered me:
Such a slow plot—I was so bored. None of the characters are likeable and I could not care less about what happened to them. Maisie and Rachel are both shallow and have the same arrogant, angry voice. The parents are terrible—Judith is an over-the-top hideous person. I don’t consider this a historical 1960s novel—the time period did not add anything to the storyline and the story would not change outside of that time.