If you've ever forgotten what being a teenager was like, this book will shock you with memories. Galloway is amazing at picking up details of high school life. In every school there was a group of "goths" or some other similar off-shoot, and As Simple As Snow captures the social patterns of this particular clique perfectly. As much as I normally try to block high school memories out, reading this brought on flashbacks at full force.

Maybe this effect would not be the same for all generations, but there seems to have been an equivalent to goth kids in each decade. The fifties had their beatniks, the twenties had their flappers, the 1890's had their poets. Every school has its outcasts, and every group of outcasts has its own mystique. With this in mind, anyone that attended public school should be able to enjoy the book.

That's all beside the point, though. A.S.A.S. is not solely a homage to castaways from high school society. It is about Anna Cayne, the mysterious, intelligent, and vulnerable girlfriend of the narrator. As the plot unfolds, the potential danger surrounding Anna increases to a feverish point, described with all the whimsy of a genuine goth kid.