This has been on my awareness for two years, on my physical bookshelf for one. It's YA -- not my thing -- so I just kept postponing it. Mistake.

OMFG.

What a beautiful book. Thomas has an exquisite sense for human complexity, moral dilemmas, for inner beauty and decency. Yes, it's heavyhanded, especially in the goody-goody Kumbaya sense -- did I mention it's YA? -- but I may have been needing that just now. I found questions to ponder and ideals to live up to. I found a horrible new insight, one I hadn't considered: blame. In addition to the powerlessness and anger that targeted communities must feel, there must be some people who feel (inappropriately) responsible: "If only I had done X or Y". What a crippling burden.

Yet I think it'll change one day. How? I don't know. When? I definitely don't know. Why? Because there will always be someone ready to fight.

Do not make my mistake. Read this right now - there is no better moment. Read it, energize, and keep the momentum going. And let's work towards the day when people will read this, not with recognition, but with disbelief.

Oh, and I did not cry once throughout the book. But my eyes may have sweated once or twice.