I found the overall tone quite naive. You can argue that it's written by a child, but she's a teenager that hasn't had the easiest childhood and it quite aware of the situation Rosaleen gets herself into. It's trying to be a 'nice' book in a time and place where circumstances weren't very nice at all. The plot was slow and it was lacking much raw emotion except for the final chapter where it picked up but by then it was too late.