Hope pervades all these stories, despite the fact that the adolescent girls in them often lead less than idyllic, even frightening lives in frightening times. A good part of that hope derives from Ms. Ryal's lyricism: through it we understand that the girls all burn with an inner strength that will carry them through the abuse, the death, the racism, and the alcoholism they must endure in their lives as "crackers" growing up in Florida's panhandle.