Finished: History of Wolves (Fridlund) A very intense and sad book about a 15 year old girl, Madeline, who has been raised with zero social skills on a now defunct commune on a lake in Minnesota by her parents. When she meets a woman and her four year old son, Paul, who have moved in across the lake, and is asked to help out with babysitting, she has no idea about how intricate and fragile their family dynamic is. Madeline narrates the tale and goes into detail about some of her high school experiences, where she is known as the "freak" or the "commune" kid. She also delves into what she remembers of her past when the other commune members were there and she had her one best friend that was her age. By the end of the book, I think she has figured out that her parents may not even be her real parents, but just the members of the commune that volunteered to keep her. Anyway, having grown up in the woods and on the lake, Madeline is completely at home out in the wild and is fascinated by wolves. Paul's mother, Patra, trusts Madeline more and more to take Paul about and show him how to do outdoor things. Madeline notices that Paul seems sickly much of the time, but doesn't know enough to question things. She can see that Patra adores her son and dotes on him. Madeline is just beginning to feel a part of some kind of normal family, hanging out in a warm house with plenty of food, when Patra informs her that her scientist husband will be coming home for the weekend so she won't need her for a few days. A week or so later, Madeline finds Paul's lost white cat out in the woods and takes it back to their house. She meets the husband, Leo, and is surprised to see Paul looking even more sickly. Patra has become more of a nervous wreck with her husband there, and Madeline can sense that something is off, but mostly she feels jealous of Leo have Patra's attention. We finally learn that Leo is a Christian Scientist and that Paul is very sick. Before moving to the lake, Patra had defied Leo and taken Paul to the doctor who diagnosed him with diabetes. After that, though, Leo somehow convinced Patra that Paul didn't need any medical intervention, so Paul is quickly slipping into diabetic ketoacidosis, i.e., he's going to die due to lack of insulin. Madeline ends up staying with them for the two days that Paul slips into a coma, right up until his parents take him away in a car and he dies a few hours later. We then find out that Madeline is recalling this time because she's about to testify at a hearing where the parents have been charged in Paul's death. Madeline wonders if she could have done more or helped in any way, but she's really just too socially immature herself to see that she should have asked another grownup for some kind of help. In the end, the parents get off with some kind of probation because they couldn't be persecuted for their religious beliefs. And, Madeline goes on to support herself, have a room mate and have a relationship with a young man. However, she's called home to the lake after her father dies and it becomes clear that her mother needs her there in her old age. The writing itself is very compelling and beautifully done. It's just such a sad, sad story. I spent much of the story thinking maybe the mother was poisoning her little boy, so I was surprised when it was the father who was basically forcing his religion on his much younger wife and son. ok, so now I'm going to look for something more light-hearted to read!