Auden is an only child in the movies — until Thisbe is born — but she has an older brother named Hollis in the book. I’m far from an authority on how adaptations work, but I can’t help but wonder if this one might have been better suited for a miniseries to more thoroughly flesh out the characters and plot lines.

Filming continued through early June which included shooting at County Line MX, located in Bolton, North Carolina. The flatness of the characters was echoed by a New York Times reviewer that claimed the characters had all majorly been dumbed down to present an "Instagram-friendly" adaptation, leaving the film with no clear conflict or stakes. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Their relationship comes up several more times throughout the book, but Eli's dating history is left out of the movie. He arranges for meetings with publishers in other states and only focuses on writing and selling his book.The baby, spending most of its time crying, was an interesting touch and I certainly felt for Heidi as she struggled to care for it without the support of her husband. She regards her dad’s new wife, Heidi, as an over-enthusiastic girly girl with little to offer in the way of intellectual companionship. I think Last Kiss of the Butterfly by Jill Hucklesby and Flightsend by Linda Newbery would also appeal. Thank you for supporting my small business and allowing me to continue providing you a reliable resource for clean book ratings.

That, along with her newfound anger at Robert for leaving Heidi, is what inspires her to approach Maggie about learning how to ride a bike. Auden soon overhears multiple fights between Heidi and her father, mostly centered around caring for the baby. In the Netflix version, it happens after a "hot dog party" and food fight, when Auden, Eli, and their friends run into the ocean for a night swim (very efficiently knocking three items off of Auden's quest list). Auden rushes to the park in time to watch, and afterwards, takes him aside so they can clear the air. He convinces her to put on her never-worn prom dress and takes her to the beach, where their friends surprise her with a "beach bash"-themed prom under the pier.As an insomniac she spends most of her nights out on the town driving around trying to find a 24 hour diner or someplace to go. I'm glad to say she gets distracted in the seaside town where her Dad lives and starts to live a little.

Similarly, Auden doesn't plan to start working at Heidi's boutique, Clementine's, until she's in Colby and sees how an overwhelmed Heidi is trying to balance the financial side of the business with taking care of her newborn. Later, it's revealed that Eli is coming out of retirement and he ultimately moves to Barcelona to fulfil a longtime dream and start seriously competing. Now that they have divorced and moved on to other relationships, Auden still finds herself awkwardly trapped in complex parental give-and-take. Due to the fighting during her parents' divorce, Auden became a night owl and would often stay up incredibly late at night.She's decided to spend the summer between graduation from high school and her first year at college with her father in a beach resort town. Hollis is far more carefree than Auden, and his refusal to grow up plays into Auden forcing herself to act like an adult all the time.

In the book, Victoria shows up to help at the very end, but only after Eli's mom, Karen, helps with Thisbe and encourages the initial "intervention" with Heidi and Robert. Arriving there, Auden realizes her father is as flaky as ever, her stepmother is a mess, and the baby is extremely colicky. As she gets to know herself – and a secretive boy with dark, brooding eyes – can Auden finally start to let go of her hang-ups and find a place where she belongs? This book is Slatebreaking because it includes those tropes that we crave in a summer read: emotionally struggling girl meets mysterious emotionally struggling boy, they have adventures, physical chemistry happens. Several days after their first kiss, Auden overhears Robert and Heidi arguing while she and Eli are delivering newspapers (again, for the quest).Embarrassed and defencive, Auden begins to question why Eli won't open up to her about his friend Abe's recent death.