This story shows the long term effects of childhood abuse. It also shows very clearly that the psychological abuse aspect of physical abuse is generaly not take serious enough! And unfortunatly society at large makes it damn near impossible to get the real help victims of abuse need.

It also shows very clearly that child abusers can and do continue to victimize their victims long after they are supposedly removed from the victims life. And it is even worse when the victim is their own child.

The adults (parents, guardians, mentors) failed big time in not getting proper psychological help in timely manner for Shawn. That help is even more difficult to provide, because of the negative stigma associated with going to a "shrink". And most teens are under tremendous peer presure (actually victims of "sanctioned" mobbing) to be "normal", and going to a psychologist is a sign of being un-normal.

The other message that comes through very loud and clear, is that turning to acohol as a relaxant and de-stresser is actually counterproductive. And is even worse when the those involved in promoting it are unwilling (or even unable) to confront the issues in a rational maner. I have seen to many of my own peers turn to alcohol hoping to solve their relationship issues, and in the end just making the problem worse. Most often by blaming all the others for their own decisions and actions.

In general, a very good story. There are many references to issues and events told in the previous books. This is maybe the easiest read of the whole series. For victims of child abuse this series could probably trigger serious PTSD episodes. But even so I would recommend the series as required reading for counselers, psychologist, social workers, teachers, health care workers and others who have to deal with children and teens.