I decided to read this book along with [b:Speak|39280444|Speak|Laurie Halse Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529044298l/39280444._SY75_.jpg|118521] and [b:Me Myself & Him|29752011|Me Myself & Him|Chris Tebbetts|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545964930l/29752011._SY75_.jpg|50109741] as preparation for a YA analysis course I'm taking this year. I had only been reading adult fiction for a while and wanted to get myself back into the style and flow of YA. I really liked this book. As someone who is an eldest sibling and also diagnosed with what Cookie's sister struggles with in the book reading what is arguably the other half of that experience was emotional for me.

Like with many verse novels I found the actual poems really unable to hold a candle to poems that don't have to sustain a continual story. They were simple, they were small, there wasn't a lot of wordplay. But in a way, it elevated the placemaking of the story. Cookie is thirteen years old, untrained in poetry, and going through a shattering experience. Of course she wouldn't be writing super technically skilled poetry.

In very few pages, and very few words per page, Sones hooks you completely on the emotional unrest Cookie's family endures, to the point where you're yearning as badly as Cookie is for things to be okay. Outstanding in the realm of YA verse novels. The only thing I can think of that compares is [b:The Poet X|33294200|The Poet X|Elizabeth Acevedo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1498766234l/33294200._SY75_.jpg|54024746], and that's madly high praise.