The Whole Stupid Way We Are

Best friends Dinah and Skint have fine-tuned the art of staving off boredom in their small Maine town. This winter, though, Skint is dealing with issues larger than Dinah can comprehend as his father succumbs to early-onset dementia and his home life crumbles. Griffin's debut is atmospheric and brutally sad, expertly using the desolate, frozen landscape to underscore the friends' chilling loss of faith in the world at both the micro (Skint's mother's astonishing failure as a compassionate guardian; Dinah's church group leader's bigotry) and macro (an onslaught of news stories about human rights abuses) levels. Skint's family situation is brought to life with rare clarity and painful particularity, and the more universal scenario of one friend pulled into adulthood while the other clings to childhood will ring true with readers. Griffin's writing is assured and nuanced, and while the plotting unfolds slowly for much of the first half, Griffin draws readers in with a large cast of intriguing and original supporting characters. The fierce protectiveness between the friends is a bright spot in the narrative, but the loss of dependable adult figures, the eventual, devastating falling-out between Dinah and Skint, and the open ending make this a deeply unsettling read. Hand it to those who like their tearjerkers realistic and unrelenting. claire e. gross