This was an unusual, thought provoking read which evoked very mixed feelings. It deals with a family in crisis over a relatively short time period just before and after their 17 year old son, Noah, a convicted paedophile sex offender, is released from juvenile detention and treatment. There are, unsurprisingly, very dark themes and scenarios, not just the description of Noah's crimes but also in the horrific reactions of his peers. The book succeeds to a significant degree, if imperfectly, in posing some morale, emotional and intellectual challenges via a portrayal of Noah and especially his mother which is sympathetic, and paints them as much more complex and deserving of empathy which transcends the central crime. The narrative moves swiftly, the book is quite short and while overall quite well written I found some of the writing a bit simple - that may be the intended style to help frame the central issues very directly. The author is a child psychologist and this clearly informs and adds to the writing of this novel.

While I am not sure if I adored the book it is certainly one that has made a big impact via a subject that is rarely centred in a novel (at least from a symoathetic perspective of the offender and their family), and a layered, thoughtful treatment of that topic and protagonists. It is certainly a very quickly engrossing, well told story and very readable book with some surprises, a pervasive sense of maintained and escalated tensions and plot twists throughout.