Sadly this book just didn’t grab as much as I hoped it would. I put it down and picked it up multiple times but I just couldn’t connect with it. Super bummed.

Charm & Strange is a captivating tale that contains heavy and dark topics. The characters and relationships are unique, interesting, and complex, and many relationships don't end up where you might expect them to. This story brilliantly weaves the present and the past together by alternating chapters between them.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Win is a wonderfully complex character who hasn't been dealt a good hand in life. He lives in a boarding school in Vermont that his parents sent him too, and he spends his time there dealing with his many problems. He experienced many things as a child, especially the summer that he is eleven, that no child should have to experience. He's been through abuse at the hand of his father. He also has severe motion sickness, which causes problems for him on car trips. Because of something he did after a tennis match, he worries he could become like his dad. He fears the wolf inside of him.

There are some relationships in this story that don't go the way you might expect them to. For example, when Win meets Jordan, I was expecting a romance to develop. I didn't realize she would end up dating a different guy by the end of the story. There are also some strange relationships when Win's family goes up to visit their cousins. There is a relationship between Win's older brother Keith, and one of the cousins, that seemed like it was a relationship that cousins shouldn't have.

The way this story is told enables readers to get a full picture of Win, also known as Drew. You get to read about the past, and the present, and they alternate chapters. By reading his past, you see what events have shaped him into the boy he is today. It shows why he would be emotionally unstable. When you see what's happened to him, you understand him.