Karens, please chill out and think about the entire situation and culture these characters were a part of. If most of you had listened to the entire book instead of cutting it off the minute it became uncomfortable, you would know that the “biker man” never sexualized her in the beginning nor did he groom her. He took care of her. Made sure she was fed and clothed because her own parents were meth heads. You would have heard that he came from an abusive background and I think it’s safe to say that mentally, he was a bit challenged. I’ll spoil it for everyone… it all works out in the end.
I would not condone my 15 year old being with someone 10 years older than her but I am also not raising her in an environment where she would become attached to the one person who showed her love and safety.
If a good story doesn’t make you uncomfortable at times, the writer hasn’t done their job or you are just unwilling to put yourself in the characters shoes. Not everyone lives in the same privileged environment and many children suffer trauma that takes a lifetime of therapy to maybe ever only partially heal.
As for the performance, why is no one mentioning the obvious mistakes in narrating? The narrator forgot which voice she was reading several times and even repeated sentences as if she lost her spot on the page. It was confusing at some points and I would have to rewind a bit to make sure I wasn’t missing something. The performance was terrible. That is why I wish I had chosen a different book. Story was great. Performance was terrible at best.