Descrip­tions

Fifteen-year-old Craig is nowhere close to over his (maybe) ex-boyfriend when a brooding kid with a head of multicolored hair, Lio, transfers to his school. Craig is an emotional motormouth; Lio is a cancer survivor with a twin brother who didn’t make it; and their budding relationship is already complicated before the 2002 Beltway Sniper begins terrorizing the D.C. area in which they live. There is trauma to spare in this novel, but Moskowitz, as usual, imbues her prose with a dreamy quality that makes every off moment feel monumental, even when it comes at the expense of realism. Despite featuring the very real sniper attacks of 2002, this is as amorphous as the author’s Invincible Summer (2011)—not necessarily a bad thing for those inclined to float along with the lullaby rhythm. The theme of the randomness of tragedy (literalized here by 9/11, the sniper, cancer, and Craig’s 14 lost pets) is particularly well-handled. Moskowitz is firmly within her comfort zone here; it’ll be fascinating to see what happens when she breaks out.