Read This Book…

Berlin, Cameron, and Jessie all work at Pink Mountain Pizza, a popular indie pizza spot in their small Canadian town. It’s the dead of winter, and Berlin is teetering on the edge of her depression. Her best friend stopped talking to her weeks ago and won’t explain why. Cameron is grieving the disappearance of his cousin and trying to keep his family together. Jessie comes from the richest family in town, but she is desperately trying to escape their suffocating grasp and strike out on her own. Two things happen to throw their worlds into turmoil: first, Berlin thinks she spots Cameron’s missing cousin one night working the late shift. Second, the news that Pink Mountain Pizza is being sold to Jessie’s father becomes public. Over the course of one very tumultuous week, Berlin, Cameron, and Jessie must contend with these upsets, all while making tentative steps toward friendship.

Oh my gosh, this novel — I wasn’t sure quite what to expect going in, but it ended up totally capturing my heart. This is a book with three point of view characters, although we spend the most time in Berlin’s head, so she really feels like the anchor of this book. Her heartbreak and confusion over losing her friend are palpable, and she doesn’t have an outlet for all that hurt and frustration, so she takes it out on Cameron, whom she’s known forever but isn’t exactly friends with.

Cameron is a character who laughs at everything because if he doesn’t laugh, he’ll probably cry. Money is tight at home, his parents are largely absent, and he’s doing his best to hold it all together for his younger sisters while grieving the loss of his cousin and privately raging at a world that gives up on missing Indigenous teen girls.

Cameron and Berlin clash spectacularly, and then Jessie comes in to shake things up a bit. As the daughter of the man trying to buy their pizza joint, she understands that her presence is awkward, but she’s making an earnest effort to go to a trade school and make her own life, something her parents don’t understand or condone. She sometimes makes reckless choices, but she has a heart of gold.

Sometimes, the plot feels a bit meandering, but that’s okay — I was so drawn in by the characters and their day-to-day lives and struggles and their passion for Pink Mountain Pizza. The book has a slow burn build, and it confronts some dark themes, but the ending is ultimately hopeful and inspiring and reminds readers of what can be accomplished with a community that cares for one another.