From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—This memoir is a classic coming-of-age story in which the author casts himself as an antihero in the tradition of Holden Caulfield. Schrand's stories of life at the family-owned Enders Hotel in Soda Springs, ID, resonate with the wide-eyed enthusiasm of youth and yet are balanced with the sober vision of hindsight. This is ironic because alcoholism and drug use, and their consequences, pervade the narrative. The author evokes a unique sense of place with what is essentially a series of vignettes from his childhood. He introduces readers to a ragtag and at times sorry cast of characters searching for purpose and dignity. This common narrative thread ties strongly to his search for "manhood" and his missing father. Schrand's specificity and eye for detail transport readers to the desolate environs of the Enders Hotel. This book will appeal to anyone who has ever felt out of place or out of step with the world, especially teen males.—Jennifer Waters, Red Deer Public Library, Alberta, Canada
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From

*Starred Review* Schrand’s deeply textured memoir of life in a small Idaho town boasts a rich palette of glittering iridescent hues, somber earth tones, and delicate, evocative washes. He spent most of his youth in the hotel his recovering alcoholic grandparents had purchased in Soda Springs for $250,000 in 1975, then renovated while bartering labor for room and board until his widowed grandmother had to sell it for $85,000 in 1992. With his mother and rage-prone stepdad, also recovering alcoholics, they all toiled endlessly “in a place where the only thing that mattered was hard work.” At school Schrand finds BJ, a mix of bright spontaneity and dark undertones, and one of many beautifully limned personalities. Schrand crafts moving vignettes that reflect the changes impinging on small-town life, where “the wind on my face felt like gratitude itself.” Whether describing a room of abandoned suitcases, “a mausoleum of the forgotten people,” or how Monsanto and Mormonism define that “company town with a peculiar stripe of pity,” Schrand’s memoir sings, stirring the senses as much as the soul. --Whitney Scott