Robbie’s family was really hoping that it wasn’t Grant, but I guess there hop was strong enough because he was the one injured not killed. A few day months that he’s been out there would be his last, because Robbie’s family heard on the news that there were two deaths and one injury in Tikrit. So he served over there for a while, occasionally sending letters back and forth to one another. He left his home town River Falls to go to the war base in Tikrit which is in Iraq. Robbie’s uncle Grant, always wanted to go to war to support his country.
But Robbie never really understood how Ryan felt or how he could even live that way. He grew up basically raising himself since his mom was sick in the hospital and his dad and little sister named star died, all he had left was Robbie and his grandparents which were too old to even get out of the house.
Ryan was a boy who had a life of his own. But it doesn’t end there, because when Grant left for war Robbie needed someone else to keep him that much company. They ran together, built things together, they did almost everything together. The book really starts off when Robbie’s Uncle leaves for the war, since Robbie was really close to each other. There are enough clues to jump to your own conclusions, but I would have preferred a little more story there.
Other schools are mentioned, as well as disciplinary actions, but the reader is never really filled in about what happened, and why. One point that didn't really get resolved was what happened in the period of time from the incident to his stint in solitary confinement. Robbie's struggle to come to terms with what he did - did he murder his friend, or was it an accident? - is the key to getting home again. I'm not going to go into the subject matter, because it's easy to give away too much, but everything fit together perfectly to show the reader how a young boy could come unhinged. We are told the story of how he came to this place in alternating chapters - one set in the prison, one from the past, etc. Robbie is in a school/prison/asylum (aka "The End of the Line") for troubled youth by trial and error he finds out what he needs to accomplish to go home. The subject matter of this book reminded me of Robert Cormier's novels - very unsettling.
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