Summary

Jaime is a fourteen year old boy growing up in Joliet, Illinois. It's just him and his mother alone and against the world. They have each other, though. They live in a nice house and can afford to have nice things so they are doing pretty alright. Jaime attends an expensive private school and takes various music lessons. He is very smart and very talented. There's just one problem. Jaime's mother is an alcoholic and drug addict. It's ok though, Jaime is used to it. It's just how their life is. He doesn't care what other people say or what they think about him. He is different and he is perfectly fine with that. He has no desire to be like everyone else.

Plus, Jaime has his baby blues to help him get through the day. He takes Oxy on a very regular basis to help stay happy. Jaime doesn't like it when he isn't on Oxy because he gets angry even quicker and gets real short with people real fast. This is how he survives. This is how he tolerates picking up his mom at two in the morning and the principal who could care less about him and his life.

Jaime also has music. He loves it. And he is very good at it. His mom makes sure the arts are a priority in his life as she used to be a ballet dancer and loves music. She makes him practice and take lessons. His mother also encourages his writing and loves to hear him play and sing his songs he writes. She is very proud of the young musician he has become. Below is a video of the author, Jason Myers, reading a poem that Jaime writes at the beginning of the story.

Jaime's world gets flipped on it's side when he is sent to live with his dad for a while. He is angry and doesn't want anything to do with him. Jaime soon finds out, however, that he has only seen one side of the story. Soon, his mother's story is unraveling, little by little, until Jaimie realizes that everything may not be as it seems. He finds that San Francisco may be a new start with people who understand him, even if his father doesn't. The only problem is, can he stay here when he knows his mother needs him?

Character analysis

Jaimie is a very angry teen. He is young and shows many signs of the typical fourteen year old boy, even though he seems anything but that. He is very egocentric and struggles with thinking of other's feelings above his own. Through the story, we watch him grow as other people help him to think where other people's thoughts might be coming from. On the flip side, he goes through things that the typical fourteen year old doesn't have to which only complicates and makes worse those traits of being very inwardly focused and distrustful.

book review

Editing: A few minor errors, overall good

Writing style: Very real

Warning: Does contain drugs, sex, manipulative parents, and lots of foul language.

Overall Rating: 4 of 5

My thoughts

This book was very different from anything I had read before. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to others. My main concern is the language and inappropriate real world situations that the kids and parents get themselves into. It's what the book revolved around and it's good, but the audience maturity level and age should be higher and older. Teenage kids going through a rough situation like this may relate well to Jaimie.