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What I appreciate most about Denfeld books is her spotlight on the marginalized among us and the practices our culture engages in to help create (or perpetuate) them. I appreciate how educational they can be about broken systems, misguided practices, and the potential danger and inadequacy of "diagnosis". And Denfeld does all this within a gripping story around characters you care about, so it's like that spoonful of sugar making the medicine go down...you hardly notice it, but it does its work inside you. It may open your mind or heart to a new way of seeing others.

This might be my favorite among the four Denfeld books I've read. It was easy to immediately care about young Dennis, trapped in an institution where things happened beyond his understanding. It was easy to be grateful to custodian Ralph who deliberately befriended Dennis, helping him to trust for the first time in his life. It was easy to dislike those in charge who, despite possibly having "good" motives, often added to trauma rather than reducing it. So much of this story was familiar to me and resonated at a deep level as I remembered those I've worked with. But it was also a good old-fashioned mystery that increased in suspense as it progressed, making it an excellent audio listen.