I admire Peyton's journey and that of her parents. I do feel bad that she was locked inside herself with no way to express anything for so long. I'm glad she had such good advocates as her parents and that they persisted in trying to find the right thing for Peyton.

I had a hard time following Peyton's poetic style thoughts (presented in the book as italicized passages). For the longer ones, it took me quite a while to break down the meaning behind what was on the page.

I was extremely disappointed that Peyton seemed to outright reject Christianity when it was presented to her. I don't know if that stems from the early experience with a church youth group or from her parents not making church a priority or just a rebellion on Peyton's part--but the fact that she didn't even want to consider Christianity's viewpoint saddened me and from that point on, it was hard for me to read this book (the last chapter or two). ( )