I was booktalking this for some of our middle school students, and I didn't need to finish it to do so because she'd given me a written booktalk. I wanted to read at least part of it to get a feel for the characters and the story, and it's quite well written. I think I might recommend it to 8th grade and up for the level of violence, but honestly younger readers might enjoy it too because of the realism. It's harsh, and fairly bleak at the beginning, but the teenagers' voices are spot on and the story is incredibly compelling and timely. The audiobook reader is also great.