Raven and her twin brother Matthew are born into poverty. Their parents are young, accidentally got pregnant, and don’t have much of a support system. Raven is born beautiful, and Matthew is born with dark eyes. This right away scares their mother, Ellen, thinking something is wrong with him. She suffers from postpartum depression. Their father tries to give his children everything he can, having a neighbor watch the children during the day so he doesn’t have to worry about them with Ellen.
After years of suffering from postpartum depression, Ellen leaves, leaving Joe alone with the children. He does his best to raise them, with the continued help of the neighbor, but money is tight. Eventually, a few months later, Ellen returns, with a new boyfriend. She decides she only wants to see Raven, as Matthew still scares her. This upsets everyone, Joe, Raven, and Matthew, but Joe realizes he can’t withhold Raven from her mother. Raven doesn’t enjoy spending some weekends with her mother but goes anyway. Her mother’s boyfriend is abusive, and neither treats her as they should; she doesn’t want her parents to argue about it.
One day, on his way home from work, Joe is killed in a car accident. The children only have one place to go live- with their mother. The abuse continues and gets worse as Matthew receives the brunt of it. Eventually, Raven ends up in foster care while Matthew ends up in a group home.
This book made me feel bad for Raven, as the abuse depicts what I am sure sadly exists in some foster care homes. Only wanting love, and never truly finding it. I thought this book was going to include the school shooting and its aftermath; however, it had her life before the shooting and the shooting.
Some of my pet peeves with this book. After the school shooting, we go back in time to the 1960s when the shooter was born, along with his twin sister. There are some milestones that the author has happening far too early in the children’s lives. At only 6 months old, one baby is knowingly addressing an adult by name- “Sha-Sha” for Sharon, then later at 18 months old the children are talking in complete sentences, such as: “Nah-uh, I don’t feel like it.” To me, these things are happening at too young of an age and there is nothing given about these children to suggest that they are geniuses.