Wasted paper
I'm sorry, I've tried to give Dickey the benefit of the doubt, but this was my third book by him, and it just doesn't work. The best part of the book is the bike, and possibly the thong (if you like that sort of thing), but the storyline is flat and somewhat predictable, and the characters are either painfully underdeveloped or extremely dysfunctional. It just didn't make sense! Who are these people, and what was the rationale behind their actions? We all know that people do stupid things, but this was the case with every character!
Billie is supposed to be so savvy, but love apparently turned her into an idiot who gets pregnant to wrest her married man from his wife. Keith is a weak-minded shell of a man who has no idea about any of the women in his life. There is little to Carmen but shrill and unreal manipulation and desperation, and Destiny is the underaged glue that holds them together. And let's not forget Carmen's parents, who are so 2-dimensional that it's hard to see either of them as the ultimate culprit.
In addition to having flat and unsympathetic characters, the story has no flow. There seem to be a lot of scenes that have no relevance to the rest of the story, but were just put in for shock value (everyone loves to read about lesbians, right?) or maybe just to fill space. And isn't it amazing how Billie just happens to be the one to find Destiny, and under those circumstances? I just don't buy it, like I don't buy so many parts of this novel. I'm once again disappointed in Dickey's work, and won't bother trying him again.