Angel Morgan and her brother Bernie have had an unstable life. Their father is in jail, and their mother is flighty. She dumps them at her grandmother's house, forcing Angel to pose as their mother when handling school arrangements over the phone because child services will take them away. She copes by talking with an old man who knows a lot about the stars.
Tropes for this book include:
- Anger Born of Worry: While Angel is relieved to see that her mother is recovering from her bad injuries, she is also furious. Months of worry and stress come out as she calls out Mrs. Morgan for being so flightly and Lethally Stupid.
- Bittersweet Ending: Angel is reunited with her mother and brother, but the former is badly hospitalized from a car accident and is under investigation from Child Protective Services while Bernie recovers from a broken leg. She still doesn't seem to understand that what she did was wrong, so Angel lays down the line: her mother cannot be a flighty Cloudcuckoolander and that things need to change. Angel sets down the terms that if her mother can't, Angel is turning her into the cops. Her mother at least agrees to try but the ending remains ambiguous if she can live up to it.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: When talking in the hospital, Angel demands to know why her mother took away Bernie from school. Her mother explains that she had taken up with a new boyfriend and missed her children. She said she wasn't sure that her flame would want to kids and only took Bernie while knowing Angel could take care of herself. Mrs. Morgan is oblivious to how Angel was shaking in anger, because the real problem was she just appeared and disappeared, again.
- Drives Like Crazy: Deconstructed; Mrs. Morgan's new boyfriend caused a massive car crash while driving her and Bernie around. He gets off with little to no injuries but the crash breaks Bernie's leg and Mrs. Morgan ends up in the ICU.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Mrs. Morgan gets away with abandoning her children, and then essentially kidnapping Bernie without telling Angel. Then she ends up in a massive car crash, that injures her son and lands her in the ICU. The police start to investigate the circumstances, and Angel threatens to tell them everything she knows unless her mother agrees to be a better parent.
- Raised by Grandparents: Not willingly. Angel's great-grandmother isn't thrilled to have kids on her farm. With that said, she mellows and absolutely refuses to kick them out; when Angel is terrified about Bernie being picked up by their mother and vanishing with him, her great-grandmother comforts her and says they'll do all they can to find him.
