This audiobook had been on my wishlist for a while. The narrator for Max was fantastic, the other for Jordan was annoying and whiney to match that character. I thought I would get over being irritated but the end if the book came and I’m still dissatisfied. This book would have translated so much better as two stories in a duology. It would have been interesting if the background of the boys had been built up as separate narratives, to converge in another book with a fleshed out romance to root for. As much time as the narrative takes us in each boy’s thoughts, they still don’t feel fleshed out. And peripheral characters are incredibly flat with a bare stroke of personality in the wrap up. Having had a parent with an addiction myself when I was a teenager I do understand some of what Jordan was dealing with personally if through a different lens. It is probably my personal bias that I am especially irritated that he trusted an addict with that amount of money. He knew she had been terrible with money since his father died. With their home on the line, he should have asserted himself to see that the debt was paid off instead of handing over thousands of dollars. I wish Max’s story had been the main focus because Male rape is a topic rarely addressed in adult and young adult fiction and as sensitively as it was handled I was expecting a more in depth healing process. The ending is pretty deflating, a pointed realistic outcome of an addicted parent failing to be a parent. I saw it coming from the minute he noticed she was staying out late and smelling of strange odors once money started coming in and I expected it from the minute she was noted to sit around and watch tv instead of doing anything productive. I get that it’s a 17 year old whose dealt with loss and a parent with addiction, but I expected more maturity from Jordan, not spinning in place and practically paralyzed from acknowledging the truth.