She'd risked everything, and here was the result: the raw, warped core of her life.

I felt more doubtful than usual with 'Goon Squad,' because I knew that the book's genre wasn't easily named - Novel? Stories? Novel-in-stories? - and I worried that its lack of a clear category would count against it. My hopes for it were pretty modest.

th blu nyt th stRs u can't c th hum tht nevr gOs awy

"See," Sasha muttered, eyeing the sun. 'It's mine."

I guess in my own life, privacy, anonymity, and the mystery of being lost are important. I also feel that people are mysterious and complex no matter what they do, and no matter how hard they try to reveal their own mystery.

The pause makes you think the song will end. And then the song isn't really over, so you're relieved. But then the song does actually end, because every song ends, obviously, and THAT. TIME. THE. END. IS. FOR. REAL.

If you don't have people that the reader cares about and stories that are gripping, you've got nothing.