Be Safe I Love You

by Cara Hoffman

Lauren Clay has returned from a tour of duty in Iraq just in time to spend the holidays with her family. Before she enlisted, Lauren, a classically trained singer, and her brother Danny, a bright young boy obsessed with Arctic exploration, made the most of their modest circumstances, escaping into their imaginations and forming an indestructible bond. Joining the army allowed Lauren to continue to provide for her family, but it came at a great cost.

When she arrives home unexpectedly, it’s clear to everyone in their rural New York town that something is wrong. But her father is so happy to have her home that he ignores her odd behavior and the repeated phone calls from an army psychologist. He wants to give Lauren time and space to acclimate to civilian life.

Things seem better when Lauren offers to take Danny on a trip to visit their mother upstate. Instead, she guides them into the glacial woods of Canada on a quest to visit the Jeanne d’Arc basin, the site of an oil field that has become her strange obsession. As they set up camp in an abandoned hunting lodge, Lauren believes she’s teaching Danny survival skills for the day when she’s no longer able to take care of him.

But where does she think she’s going, and what happened to her in Iraq that set her on this path?

Genres: Fiction, War, Contemporary, Book Club, Adult Fiction, Military Fiction, Mental Health

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2014

About the author

HOFFMAN is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Running, So Much Pretty and Be Safe I Love You. She has written for the New York Times, Marie Claire, Salon, and National Public Radio, and is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades including a Folio Prize nomination, and a Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award.

She has been a visiting writer at Columbia, St. John’s and University of Oxford.

She currently lives in Manhattan.

Reviews

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be Safe I Love You is a moving story of a young female soldier's homecoming after service in Iraq. Lauren Clay enlisted in the army after her high school graduation in order to provide financial security for her younger brother and depressive father. After five years of service her commitment is finished and she has returned home to Watertown, NJ, fresh from a nine month tour in Afghanistan.

With compassion and sensitivity, Hoffman exposes the struggle many returning soldiers face in reconnecting with the people and places they left behind. Family and friends are sure Lauren just needs some time to readjust to civilian life and the inevitable changes that have happened in her absence, but it soon becomes obvious to the reader that Lauren is suffering from the more severe symptoms of PTSD as she begins to experience black outs and hallucinations.

Amongst the confusion and anger Lauren is experiencing she develops twin obsessions, to toughen up her thirteen year old brother, determined to ensure he experiences the world without the buffer of a computer screen, and to meet up with a soldier she served with and follow through on their plans to work together at the Hebron oilfields. The tension arises as Lauren struggles to keep her grip on reality, and under the guise of a visit to their mother, heads for Canada with an unsuspecting Danny in tow.

Of the entire novel what really struck me was Lauren's thoughts about her service in Iraq ..."officially women weren't in combat. They just support. It was the same f** job as every soldier she served with, but with the added downgrade in title and pay." In Be Safe I Love You, Hoffman honours the female experience of war, something rarely explored in fiction despite more women having been killed in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq than in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined.

Be Safe I Love You is a thoughtful and thought provoking story, and though the conclusion is a little too neat and easy, I think it is a novel well worth your time.

[Rae Meadows · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read nonfiction accounts of women veterans (Soldier Girls) but Be Safe I Love You is the first novel--and the only one I know of--about a woman vet returning from Iraq. This is a stunning book. Raw, heart-wrenching, tense, profound. The core relationship, that between Lauren and her brother Danny, is beautifully rendered. Hoffman's prose is both taut and poetic, and she capture's Lauren's mental unraveling with crystalline details that felt very true. Highly recommended.

[Debbie]

I've never read a better novel depicting the tragedy of war from a woman's perspective. The heartbreak, the emotional stories, the breakage that the mind goes through, is all laid out in this book. So well written and flawlessly portrayed a true stand out in my opinion. The protagonist Lauren is the shell of the woman she used to be but still the reader falls for her. Who could not fall in love with a woman who has seen so much and has come out alive? I adored this book.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something different....Lauren returns from the army in Iraq ostensibly unscathed but the wounds lie deep.

I liked this as it was an unromantic and I suspect realistic depiction of the trauma suffered by soldiers...that Lauren is a woman adds to the books unusualness.

Recommended.

[Alexis Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A somewhat hyperbolic way to start a review, but this is the best thing I've read in a long time. The story is largely about a veteran's return from war and the challenges she faces when she gets home. Some aspects of this are familiar because we've been hearing a lot about PTSD in returning vets for the past 10 years. What is unique (beyond the fact that the returning vet in this case is woman) is that this character isn't set up to be simply a victim of her psychological state or just someone that could be dangerous to others due to that state (although at times she's both). Instead, her apparent PTSD and the other stresses of coming home are viewed through the lens of relationships with family and friends. Her previous role in the family is challenged by what has changed while she was away. Her brother and father don't know entirely what to make of her behavior, and her boyfriend and friends are also effected. Without giving too much away, she and her brother end up on a journey that is both exciting and somewhat scary because her motives aren't entirely clear. The dialogue with her brother is funny and provides a reprieve between more stressful scenes. The writing is beautiful and a lot of what is being said by characters is truly thought-provoking and not just meant to move the plot forward.

[Karen O'Brien-Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book but found opening it a chore and eventually only read about two thirds.
The story is raw and base; the early life of this young soldier left much to be desired and her obsession with her younger brother and his welfare praiseworthy, so why did I not have any empathy or feeling for the characters? Whilst I fully appreciate this book is about military personnel who have seen things I never want to witness, I could not get over the amount of coarse language. I admit to being sensitive to coarse language, but if I am involved in the book as a whole this makes no difference.
I've read a number of reviews about "Be Safe I Love You" and most rate it very highly so maybe I'm the one missing something. That's why so many books are published each year - we all have different taste. Thanks to Simon & Schuster via Netgalley for providing my pre-publication copy.

[Artis Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've heard people say that the measure of a good story is whether it makes you miss your subway stop. This book made me wish the ride was longer, only so I could stay in the spare and beautiful world Cara Hoffman has created. Each character is so full, so real, so true, that it's impossible not to love each of them, especially the tough and vulnerable Lauren Clay.

[Jennifer Masterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won "Be Safe I Love You" in a Goodreads giveaway. I am giving it 3 3/4 stars. It is a powerful novel about a female soldiers return home from war and how she tries to fit back in. I enjoyed reading this book. I did feel at times it was a little slow but given that this novel was so excellently written about PTSD I do recommend it.

[Catherine (The Gilmore Guide to Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even before she decides to go to Iraq Lauren Clay is fighting a war. A war created by two parents who, for different reasons, are unable to care for her and her nine-year-old brother, Daniel. Instead, Lauren is left, at age 14 to take care of herself, her brother and her father, who lies in bed and cries. Despite having a prodigious talent as a coloratura soprano and having been accepted at a major music school, when the foreclosure notices arrive on their house, Lauren gives up her hopes for her future and signs up for the Marines. Be Safe I Love You by Cara Hoffman begins when Lauren returns after her tour of duty and finds a world that is both familiar and unknown.

Hoffman does an admirable job at portraying the almost impossible transition from solider to civilian. As Lauren struggles to adapt back into her previous life there are simply too many elements that no longer add up—her father is working now and taking care of her brother, Daniel has become a normal teen attached to his phone and PC, and Shane, the love of her life, is a college student and moving in a world as foreign to her as Iraq once was. How she reconciles these changes and where she sees her place in her old world are the crux of Be Safe I Love You. If underneath the sameness of everyday life there is a much larger trauma that colors her perceptions, Lauren is determined not to show it and, indeed, she doesn’t seem to know it herself. At best,

…she now knew the difference between never and always was small. Never and always are separated by a wasp’s waist, a small sliver of glass, one bead of sweat; separated by the seven seconds it takes to exhale the air from your lungs, to make your body as still as the corpse you are about to create.

The rest of this review can be read at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2014/0...

[Kristie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could have rated this 4 but every timei opened the book I.wondered how.many more.times i was.going.to havr to worry about reading the.f word honestly even soldiers with PTSD AND FAIRLY uneducated dont use as much despicable language as is contained in this book. this book does a disservice to the topic i thought it was adressing. I would have rated it much higher had the vocabulary of the characters been more than ferril

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up after reading my brother's review of it, which intrigued me because he said he was really loving it until the very end, which was, in his mind, just a spectacular pratfall. I was super curious about how/why/what that would look like, and if I would agree with his assessment or not. Long story short, I thought it was a really original and gripping book. And then at the very end I did (even forewarned) have my moment of "wait......what?!?!?" whiplash. Yeah Brian....I definitely concur.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lauren Clay is an Army Sergeant returning home from Iraq. Despite experiencing trauma while deployed Lauren is able to rush through her our processing and return home to her father and brother just in time for Christmas. Lauren also reunites with her ex-boyfriend, Shane, best friend Holly and her former music teacher. It is evident from the beginning that Lauren has changed but it takes a crisis to realize just how changed she is.

Lauren had a tough up bringing, her mother abandoned her and her brother Danny as young children and her father was bedridden due to depression. Lauren was the provider, cook and parent forcing her to grow up quickly and learn to hide her emotions. Her relationship with her brother was unique and real. His letters to her while she was in Iraq were great and a nice addition to the book, it brought their relationship to life.

I was bothered by her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Shane, from the first moments we meet him through the end. I have a feeling their relationship was always dysfunctional. I didn't quite get the inclusion of Shane's uncles in the story, I found them an unnecessary distraction and I couldn't really figure out who was who or if it mattered. I liked Lauren and Holly's relationship, it seemed to be the least strained and Lauren was most like her old self when with Holly.

I had several big issues with the novel however, first how the author tried to make the story a thriller/mystery by leaving out some information and teasing us with little bits of information. Secondly, there were some off little side stories, such as Shane's uncles, their intelligence and failure to leave the neighborhood. Finally, I found the jumping around in time to be distracting and hard to follow.

I didn't like ending, it felt rushed and any problems were solved to conveniently. I really disliked how we learned about Lauren's experience in Iraq and wish the author would have explored that more as well as her connection to Daryl. There were also details that were not cleaned up, such as hints that Lauren spent time in jail or that she could face charges for her conduct in Iraq. These things could have been explored more so we had a better sense of how and why Lauren had become who she was.

As a former female Army sergeant there were parts of this novel I strongly identified with, that felt very real. While I never deployed to Iraq, I have some sense of what it is like to try and transition between military life and civilian life. However, I think Lauren's transition could have been more fully explored.

I received a copy of the novel from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

[Lura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be Safe I Love You is a sharp, gripping psychological thriller about the long road home from war. Lauren has just been discharged from the army after a tour in Iraq, and she returns to her working class community in Watertown, NY, to find that she and everyone else has changed. Her boyfriend Shane, who went away to school while she joined the military, seems entirely clueless despite all his education. Her friend Holly has gotten stuck bartending while caring for her small daughter. And her brother Danny has gotten soft, spending all day on the computer, texting his friend and looking up things online instead of going out and seeing them for himself.

Lauren herself is different too: sharper, harder, and more dangerous. But thanks to her absent parents, she’s had a lifetime of experience pretending to the world--and herself--that everything is okay.

The story unfolds from multiple points of view and jumps back and forth in time, which is sometimes disorienting. But Hoffman’s prose is clear and to the point, and the dialogue is so believable you start to feel you’ve been listening to these characters for years. The relationship between Lauren and her brother Danny is incredibly real and fascinating; every interaction seems loaded with years of shared history between them. The Dispatches--emails from Danny to Lauren during her time on the front--are especially poignant and illuminating. The bluntness with which Hoffman addresses the story’s central questions is also refreshing, given the tendency of a lot of literary fiction to tiptoe around the hard stuff.

Hoffman does an excellent job building a sense of dread, particularly through the latter half. Unfortunately, some of that sense of dread comes from withheld information (the doctor who keeps trying to talk to Lauren insists something is wrong but never gets specific about what), a trick I would have preferred Hoffman had avoided. The ending is also not entirely earned--some things feel too neatly tied up, and others are left entirely without resolution.

But these are fairly minor quibbles. The novel is a powerful portrait of a soldier struggling to return home, and a community struggling to welcome home the people who try so hard to get away. Recommended for fans of gritty literary fiction.

[Staci Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was provided to me for review through the GoodReads First Reads program.

Last year I spent a good six months quite intimate with Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried as I was interning for my Alma Mater's promotion of the book as a community read and for O'Brien's visit to our campus. It is a deeply affecting, life changing book. I don't typically like war literature, but The Things They Carried is something else. It is truly not just a masterpiece of war literature, but perhaps the masterpiece of war literature.

So forgive me if I was dubious of the claims that Cara Hoffman's Be Safe I Love You was a contemporary companion piece.

While I see very few comparisons between TTTC and BSILY there is a major similarity: both tell war stories in honest and inventive ways.

Despite its less than stellar title (my husband thought I was reading a romance novel the whole time), BSILY is the first novel I've ever read that told the story of war from an honestly feminine perspective. The main character, Lauren, isn't a female soldier. She is simply a soldier. An officer who had to make tough calls and is living with the consequences of some not so great ones. There is only one reference to how difficult it is to be a woman in the army (a simple reference to being referred to as "combat support") but otherwise no one treats Lauren any different than the male soldiers she is surrounded by. Is this the most honest approach? I think so. Though the level of sexual assault and harassment women face in military situations is certainly a problem, it's also a bit refreshing to read a story about a woman damaged by war not because of her femininity, but for the same reasons a man would be traumatized.

The book also has moments of dark humor, though perhaps not on the level of how TTTC could make you actually laugh sometimes. It's more of a humor in the discomfort of Lauren's situations.

The writing is clear and cuts deeply. There are no extended poetics or florid language, just simple, very good writing.

By the end of the novel I found myself riveted by the climax and the book was hard to put down, but the build up is just as sweet. This is a novel I will highly recommend in the future.

[Diane Yannick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never been able to figure out how we send men and women to war, put them in the center of brutal combat then bring them home and expect them to pick up where they left off. Yeah, we have doctors (who have mostly never been in combat) treat our soldiers for PTSD. Considering the suicide rate, we must not really know what we're doing. Lauren Clay, the returning combat veteran, is afraid to sleep because of the intensity of her nightmares. She entered the service to try to provide financially for her younger brother who eagerly awaits her return. The sister who returns is forever changed. The extent of the change is gradually revealed through character actions/reactions rather than rhetoric. It is this gradual unpeeling of her new self that is so compelling. The relationship between Lauren and her brother, Danny, is complex and endearing. Through revealing, clever letters to his sister while she was stationed in Iraq, the reader gets to see his love and inner strength. Totally let down by his absent mother and depressed, dad, he leans on a sister who has comes home without a physical scratch. A sister with a singing talent that is genius but no longer knows what matters. It's as though she can no longer live in a world without danger. So she invents her own game of survival and takes her brother along. You'll have to read the book to learn what happens here. It is often a psychologically taut story.

I was constantly trying to figure out exactly what Lauren had seen and what she was feeling. The author gives you this space to think. There were a few times when the narration lost me and I struggled to catch up. I think it had to do with the way the flashbacks were entwined with the present. It leaves you wondering what can keep humans from slipping into despair. Love and art seem to be all. Will her memories soften with time? Will her previous life ever be enough again? "What choir could shield her from the sound of her own voice?"

Here's just one example of Hoffman's writing style: "Never and always are separated by a wasp's waist, a small sliver of safety glass, one bead of sweat: separated by the seven seconds it takes to exhale the air from your lungs, to make your body as still as the corpse you are about to create."

[cosy_reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Be Safe I Love You By Cara Hoffman

DNF: 32%

I received a ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What initially attracted me to this book was the title and cover which are both beautiful.

Lauren has come home after finishing her tour in Iraq. She comes home to her father and brother who are happy to see her. Lauren feels out of place, returning from the war zone she finds it hard and struggles to fit into civilian life. You can clearly see that Lauren has matured since the last time she was at home and is not the same person anymore.

I liked this book, I liked the idea of writing about a female soldier instead of a male soldier as this is hardly addressed in fiction works. I found myself interested in the story but along the way I lost interest with this book and found my self skimming through the pages. The plot was slow and I did not know where this book was trying to go.

[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lauren is a young woman who has always taken care of others. When her mother abandoned the family and her father succumbed to depression, she raised her little brother. Then she gives up a promising singing career and joins the Army to make sure her father and brother are financially taken care of. She returns from Iraq disturbingly changed, but the people who love her either don't notice or brush it off because they are so used to her being strong.
This book really takes you inside Lauren's head, but only gradually reveals the pivotal event in Iraq and her plan to cope with it. Very well done, and very heartbreaking.
Lauren could be a stand-in for any war-traumatized veteran. After the flag-waving is over and the Support Our Troops bumper stickers have faded, these brave people don't always get the help they deserve.
The author also connects the war to the oil industry and to global warming, but doesn't beat you over the head with it. The focus is on the poignant story of one well-meaning, suffering young woman, and the people who love her.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be Safe I Love You focuses around the story of Lauren Clay. Lauren from a young age took on the responsibility of taking care of her family. As a result of her feeling of responsibility towards them she enlists in the military and is sent to war in Iraq. The story focuses on her life after returning from the war and her struggle to readjust to normal life. Intertwined with the main narrative are stories from her past either during the war or before sprinkled in.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I felt it was the sort of story where you could become attached to the characters and feel for them even as they did things they shouldn't. The story was well written and smoothly incorporated multiple character's view points. While there may not have been edge of your seat action I felt things moved enough to keep me engaged.

Note: I received this book for free through Goodreads first read program.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be Safe I love You is a very well written fast paced novel. I think that Lauren is one of the most interesting and unique characters that I have read about in quite awhile. Cara Hoffman is adept at reeling you in and keeping you there; making you feel the turmoil that Lauren felt.
One thing I did have trouble with was with the character of Lauren's father and being a psychologist and not realizing he had depression to the point where he didn't provide for his family? In turn causing Lauren that much more chaos, stress and responsibility at a young age which added to whatever pressures and instability she felt coming back from war.
Overall though, I liked this story and I am left wanting to read Hoffman's first novel, So Much Pretty.
I am definitely keeping my eye on this author.

[Meagan Houle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never been especially drawn to stories about soldiers, but the raw realism of "Be Safe I Love You" spoke to me on a level I didn't expect. There was no false glory, no misplaced patriotism, no glossing over of ugly things. Best of all, there was genuine heart and humanity.
I know nothing of war, and certainly nothing of the discipline it would take to live a soldier's life. Somehow, though, Lauren's commitment to her music reached me where her wartime experiences could not. Singing, when done with commitment and discipline, is truly all-consuming. It can make your heart sore, than break it into jagged shards. Music is a merciless mistress, and a gifted student like Lauren abandoning her passion for the grit and misery of war is both unimaginable and, at the same time, entirely plausible. Lauren made sense to me in a way few characters have, and even when the suspense was at its peak and the story took on a thriller-like atmosphere, an undercurrent of profound, quiet insight remained, keeping me locked to the pages until the satisfying conclusion.
Maybe you're not a music person, or a homecoming-from-war-stories person, or a small-town drama person. But even if you are none of these, as long as you love gripping stories, well-told, "Be Safe I Love You" is for you.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Mother won a copy of Be Safe I Love You in the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway and shared it with me. I want to than Cara Hoffman and the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway for the copy of this book.

Classically trained singer, Lauren Clay enlisted to help support her family. After a tour in Iraq, she returns for the holidays and begins acting strange. Her father and brother are concerned about her strange behavior and the many calls from the Army psychologist. Lauren takes her brother to visit her mother in upstate New York, but instead goes into the wilderness of Canada.

Be Safe I Love You gives a view of the problems soldiers face when returning from the war zone. The families suffer with them as they watch their loved one change and not be able to come back to a normal life. It is well written about a very sad topic that is part of American life.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book about the human cost of war and about finding a path through memories of even the most unspeakable experiences. The best chapters of this book, those written from the viewpoints of the protagonist, a soldier just discharged after a calamitous stint in Iraq, and her younger brother are superb, sometimes even transcendent, masterpieces as effective for what's omitted as for what is said. Such weaknesses as I found came in the chapters and scenes from the vps of lesser characters. The hometown boys, for example, all seem a little flat and unconvincing. A minor point because the main story and the center stage characters are superb.

[Phoebe Murray · Rating 1 out of 5]

worst book I’ve ever read

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lauren Clay had a tough childhood. Through no real choice of her own, she became responsible for raising her younger brother and caring for a depressed father. Despite her responsibilities, she was an excellent student, athlete and classically trained soprano. She delayed college plans to enlist in the service in order to financially support her family. After serving her time in Iraq, she returned home a different, damaged person with PTSD.

This was an extremely well-written and emotionally powerful novel, a story of devotion and sacrifice. The characters, especially Lauren and her brother, are perfect. I highly recommend this book. It was truly touching and amazing. I cried through the last five or so pages.

[Dan Radovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her follow-up to SO MUCH PRETTY is equally as powerful, proving Hoffman indeed is one of her generations most talented writers. This is a first that I am aware of, a novel dealing with the effects of PTSD on a FEMALE Iraq War soldier. Lauren Clay returns home on Christmas to a welcoming family and friends in small town America. Her journey once home is riveting, some of the best writing I have experienced; and sure to be ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS OF 2014! Some see and sense a problem, her Father opts to ignore until it is too late. Hoffman tells a haunting story of the effects of war that leaves you feeling a true debt of honor is owed ALL that wear and have worn a uniform.

[Lydia Presley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had Be Safe I Love You by Cara Hoffman on my radar for a while but it was a twitter exchange between two bloggers that I trust that had me pulling it out finally to dive in. The story here is deceptively simple: a young woman from a small town escapes a life of poverty by enlisting and, by enlisting, is able to help her brother and her father financially. Little did I know, however, how quickly the story would move on from that into something much deeper and of more impact.

Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on April 1, 2014.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this right after I read Redeployment by Phil Klay and really appreciated the intimate exploration of Lauren's mind, in contrast to Redeployment, which shied away from that intimacy. The way her difficult past was combining with her difficult present to make life nearly unbearable was so tragically real and well depicted. She was so deeply strong and yet had truly reached the end of her rope. A lot to dissect in terms of all the minor characters and their struggles, and the way they weighed upon and/or related to Lauren. Really beautifully written, but at times the beautiful language felt needlessly opaque to me.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

My thanks go to Cara Hoffman and Goodreads First Reads Giveaway for my copy of Be Safe, I Love You that I won.

One of the tragic results of war is what it does to our love ones that go to battle zones. The mental anguish they bring home now has a name but when my husband came home from WWII, we faced his nightmares and mood swings alone. The character in the book was a young woman returning from a war zone and even with counseling, she still had difficulties dealing with reality, which made Be Safe, I Love You an excellent story.

[Dina Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the second part of the book better than the first. The second part was suspenseful. I found the first part to be a bit slow.

I had a hard time connecting to the story and the characters. I had that feeling when reading the book...the inability to forget I was reading words from an author. I didn't find myself getting lost in the story. I think reading sometimes feels like you're experiencing the story rather than sitting reading words. I didn't have that a lot when I was reading this.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raw and realistic-feeling story of the difficulties of homecoming and reintegration for a female soldier with PTSD. The story focuses mostly on Lauren's internal struggles and disorientation, with glimpses of how differently those around her view the same situations. Lauren is portrayed sympathetically even in her darker moments and the author does a good job of showing her motivations and frustrations, strength and vulnerabilities.