This book deserves for than a 5 star review! Well written! The characters... realistic! The plot... WOW!!! Emotional raw and a page turner! This is a hard book to put down once you start!

Arlie was the victim of a horrible meth lab explosion when she was young, leaving her face scarred. Arlie lives with her mom who sells her body to get her and Arlie by, while still taking drugs. Shortly after Arlie's 16th birthday, her mother overdoses on the drugs she was addicted to, leaving Arlie all by herself. When child protective services get invovled, Arlie find herself living in a world she's never had - with rules, stability and safety. Soon, an uncle she never knew even existed shows up and Arlie finds herself living with him in a metal trailer while he builds their future house. But Arlie's past is starting to catch up to her right when she's finding happiness; in the form of her stepfather who Arlie and her mom had fled from following the meth lab explosion. Arlie's about to put everything on the line, including her life, in order to try and keep her new life a reality.

I didn't mind this one too much when it was a story of self-acceptance, grief, and redefining family. Was it self-important and a little too certain of its status as "literary" fiction? Sure but I can forgive a little pretension and ego. Two things put me off: the blind love interest and the step father. Having a blind kid, whose main character trait seems to be that he is blind, fall in love with the scarred girl is just a bit too obvious and a little bit troubling. And nothing about the vengeful stepfather felt genuine.