At its heart, this is a very sweet and believable teen love story. A few things kept me from giving it a higher rating, however. First of all, for me, was the "framing" device of Antigone, which, I'm sorry, didn't work at all. Honestly, the only parallel is that there are two sisters, one of whom commits suicide. There's no particular thematic connection - the ethical concerns that drive Antigone the play are absent here, the conflict between religious beliefs and the laws of the state is not relevant, nor are the family relationships. I did, however, like the poetry that Andria and Alex used to communicate with one another - that was one literary device that worked. At the beginning of the novel, I found it a bit improbable that a girl of Iris' background would have overdosed from freebasing heroin and that no one could have seen it coming. However, plot developments that I won't discuss did provide more motivation as the novel progressed. I felt, on the whole, that the author's reach somewhat exceeded her grasp. Had she resisted the temptation to throw in all the bells and whistles I think she would have ended up with a more affecting novel.
I was given a copy of this novel by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.