Living in working-class Ashaway, Rhode Island, Angel and Birdy love the same teenage boy, frantically and single mindedly. They are compelled by the intensity of their feelings to extremes neither could have anticipated—including murder. That's only the beginning of Stewart O'Nan's multifaceted novel, which unfolds from the perspectives of the girls as well as Angel's mother and Birdy, the victim.

"[A] beautifully rendered and heartbreaking story…. This isn't a crime novel; it's a Shakespearean tragedy told in spare, poetic, insightful prose."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)