Pluto's Ghost by Sheree Fitch

Pluto's Ghost:
Jake Upshore has loved Skye Derucci since before he can remember. Volatile, complex and frustrated (he's got a label disorder from all the labels he's been given) at the best of times, Jake's on a desperate quest to find Skye before she aborts the baby he believes is his. As he hurtles headlong toward certain tragedy, Jake relives the fatal choices he's made and the powerful forces that have led him to this to end. A gripping thriller and a heart-wrenching love story, Pluto's Ghost is a raw and powerful novel about anger, escape, and redemptive love.

Sheree Fitch penned an incredible emotional journey that had me turning page after page with my heart beating in my throat. The story is written from Jake's point-of-view, and his almost manic personality really spoke to me. Sheree was unafraid to dig deep into the emotional spiral that is Jake's life, and expose every part of him, even at those times when he seemed like a hopeless case; there was some little part of him that you couldn't help loving. The incredible bond between father and son is stretched by Jake's constant trouble making, but is never broken. One other surprising, yet profound relationship is between Jake and one of his teachers, Ms. Shepherd; she see sees more in him than just the troubled boy Jake shows to the rest of the world. This book closed with an ending that was filled with hope and promise, I was almost sad to see it end.

The story begins with Jake being arrested, but we don't know exactly why, and as the story unfolds, it leads Jake on a journey of discovery. Jake lost his mother at an early age, and has been diagnosed dyslexic among a few other challenges in his life that have made him hard to understand and constantly getting into trouble. But there is one person who knows a different side of him, and that is Skye, the girl he loves more than anything. When a rumor starts circulating around the school and Skye goes missing, Jake will stop at nothing to find her. Travelling from his hometown into the big city to find Skye, Jake is unprepared for what he discovers when he finally reaches Skye.