I read this book in about a week last summer. It truly touched my heart. The message I got is that sometimes we have to rely on people outside of our families to survive. I cried often reading this book because I found the characters to be so moving and life like. For instance when Mrs. Donnovan counsels Dolores about her marriage problem. I am a big Stephen King fan and a big Lifetime movie fan so I guess you could say this was the best of both worlds LOL.