Kirstin Cronn-Mills, September 2009.  “It was a great kiss, a fantastic kiss. I loved it. I can’t deny it. But I’ve had no desire to kiss her since then. What if I want to kiss some other girl instead? I think Angelina Jolie is smoking hot, so am I a lesbian for saying so? Or am I really bisexual, like Amanda said? Brad Pitt is just as hot as Angelina Jolie, so maybe I want to do it with guys and girls. If those two ever volunteer, I’ll take them up on it.” 

So go the thoughts of sixteen-year-old Morgan.  She’s often confused, and no wonder; she has a steady boyfriend, Derek, but can’t see a future with him, but she does think he’s hot.  Then there’s Tessa, the school lesbian, who kissed her once and she can’t stop thinking about it.  And then there’s Rob, the assistant manager of the grocery store where she works, who might be her soulmate if only he knew. And more than romantic trouble is perplexing Morgan; her dad’s an alcoholic, her stepmother’s an enabler, her mom is dead, someone needs to be there for her younger brothers, her best friends are ignoring or taunting her, and she’s just found out a terrible secret about her only ally, her grandmother.  Luckily, she has an outlet for her stress that doesn’t involve cutting or drugs: the title refers to her tendency to go up in the mountains and scream out her problems, which calms her down.

Morgan is well-developed, as are the minor characters; it would be easy for Derek, for example, to come across as a doofus, but instead the reader is partly rooting for him even knowing he’s not the right one for Morgan. The little brothers are very minor characters but both memorable. Morgan’s confusion over her sexuality is realistic, and given the rural community in which she lives, the homophobia of many kids at school makes sense too.

My favorite part: we never learn the name of the grocery store where Morgan and Rob work.  Instead, Morgan refers to it by a different fake name every time: Grocery Galaxy, Food For Freaks, and more.