Was an ok book. It was about grief and being open with your emotions. A young boy witnesses the death of his mother in a drowning accident, she was drunk and he was the only one there and he couldn’t save her. The father didn’t seem very in touch with his emotions so the young boy could never come to terms with what had happened. He goes off the rails at that point, starts cutting himself, running away and drinking. His father doesn’t know what to do with him and his step-mum is too young to help. Eventually it gets to the point where he vandalises the church and is sent to prison. When he returns he tries to be different but nothing has changed so he falls back into the same patterns. But this time there is a young girl who is being beaten by her father and together they manage to escape this village and live a different way