Firefly Lane

It's hard to pinpoint why this story is so much greater than the sum of its parts. There's nothing really remarkable about any of its bits. Maybe it's the timeline: the characters aren't much older than I and a lot of the references—music, TV shows, and the like—feel familiar. Maybe it's the themes of friendship and chosen family, to which most of us can probably relate to some extent. Whatever the reason, the most important mark of a good book is its unputdownability and, in that regard, Firefly Lane earns top marks: I stayed up all night and read it straight through (I foresee a nap in my future if I'm to make it through work today).