"The truth is you can never truly make amends for the hurt you cause; you apologize, you try to atone, at best the scars lighten but they don't disappear. You live with the pain that you pained someone." I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. The first half of the novel was kind of rocky, since it pretty much acted as an extended exposition and the actual plot didn't start going until the 200 page mark. However, the book really picked up in the second half and even managed to squeeze some tears out of me, for which I highly applaud Justin A. Reynolds, as I like to say I'm pretty much dead inside. (I mean, not even A Little Life managed to make me cry.) I loved the discussion of how you should make every day count and how you should stop postponing actually starting your life because you're still caught up in the past. On top of that, I loved reading from a POC point-of-view. Some of the language chosen by Reynolds felt off and I couldn't really see actual teenagers talk like this, but that might just be a me thing. Overall, a really great book and a really strong 4 star read.