Every person carries within a sea of unshed tears, and it is not enough to simply cope with the grief of loss, bereavement. That is mere survival. Somehow, you must transform the most terrible pain into gold, the sweet light of laughter, the will to carry on as a human being, to hear and rejoin the keening song of life. Only then can you ever hope to reclaim your life.

This book is packed solid with wisdom, brilliance, lessons, wonders, and a profound sense of the secret beauty of life that you will never find in other books about "dealing with" grief. People don't really deal with grief, because our whole culture has few useful mechanisms or models. We bury grief deep, conceal our wounds and scars even from ourselves, and hope for answers on the other side. The failure to heal those in pain is, I believe, the true emptiness of our age.

This is THE book to give to someone who is hurting. Frankly, I think that includes everyone on the planet. In a perfect world, this book would be a runaway bestseller, because every single chapter rings true, each lesson teaches gently and heals completely, and you can find out for yourself just by reading a passage at random. I submit that this book could magically change the world if everyone read it, and so I recommend it to everyone I know. There are no adequate superlatives to describe the genius of it, the way it heals pain. It is simply magnificent.

One more thing: if you buy a copy for someone else, buy another for yourself. Or two or three, because we all encounter beings who feel they cannot possibly go on. Grief is so harrowing that it may take a month or two for someone who is hurting to open its pages; but once they do, they will begin to breath again.

Timmy, the protagonist of this book is a 14-year-old boy serving time in a state institution which can best be described as a Chamber of Horrors.

Why Timmy is serving time there is never explained; he does, however provide a poetic narrative that makes the stark horror of his environment even more poignant.

Timmy is sexually abused in the institution; guards falsify his records so that he is placed on a mens' ward where he is used by inmates and staff alike.

There are more questions than answers in this book, but one can say that sentiment applies to real life.

The book is very upsetting and the writing does tend to ramble without remaining within a concrete framework. What ultimately cost this book some stars is that rambling writing style and the gaps in the telling.

This book is truly a masterpiece. This story allows you inside the world and the mind of an adolesent boy in a naturally confusing stage of life and an extraordinarily confusing envirionment. Written as the boy thinks, and much like anyone else thinks, it is easy to find yourself following the logic and resoning of those who's sanity is questionable. In turn, it almost makes you question your own sanity. I know that I did. When I first read this book, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It started by entering my life as a book that I got for very little cos it had an interesting title. It ended up changing my life. I know that sounds melodramatic, but it is true. It changed the way that I looked at life, and how I looked at myself. I recommend it only to brave souls who aren't afraid of what they might discover about themselves and the world around them.

This book is written like most people think and really talk out loud to themselves. It is poetry and shame. Horror and fear. You feel every sence the writter wants to envelope you in. It is real writting! If you can get your hands on a copy, you should find a quiet and warm place and allow this stranger in.

This book is the prequel to "Listen to the Silence," which is Timmy's narrative about serving time in a state institution.

Like "Listen to the Silence," this book's strengths are the poetic narrative. Its drawbacks include a rambling, free flowing style that is awkwardly constructed at best, nebulous at worst and the reader is always left with more questions than answers.

In this prequel, Timmy describes his incestuous mother; the litany of foster homes and the institutions where he resides. Why this child is institutionalized is never explained.

This book is upsetting, unsettling and just plain abysmal. I would never wish this book on anyone.