The novel closes with a young Holder assuring an even younger Sky that the horrors she is enduring at the hands of her predatory father cannot destroy the integrity of her character. He tells her, “The sky is always beautiful. Even when it’s dark or rainy or cloudy; it’s still beautiful to look at” (405). Sky Davis is a study in the resilience of any child exposed to the evils of sexual abuse. In the interludes that depict Sky as a child fearing her father’s visits to her bedroom, she is helpless, yes—but she is determined not to surrender herself. She survives each rape by counting the plastic stars all over her bedroom walls.

Years later, as she begins to recover her memory, as each horror comes back to her, Sky resolves not to surrender. In the opening chapters, Sky comes across as confident, whip-smart, edgy, and entirely self-contained. After all, in the opening scene, she and her BFF, Six, sneak boys into her bedroom. Yet Sky is also serious and self-possessed. In her deft control of the predatory Grayson, she reveals a remarkably mature poise. Homeschooled, Sky comes to high school in charge, able to find the whole high-school-hazing concept as more amusing than destructive.