I finally finished it this weekend, and I did like it. It started off slow, but I really started to get into it once Joe arrived back in Bush Falls. I really liked the premise of how he wrote a book as a sort of catharsis for his awful senior year in high school, but the funny thing was, the book didn't really make him feel any better. He only began to feel better when he stopped running from his past and returned to Bush Falls and was able to confront everything and everyone that he had issues with.
Joe had gone through life thinking that he was the second best son. That his father didn't love him like he loved Brad just because he wasn't a Cougar. But then he saw the poster of the movie in his father's bedroom. And he found the scrapbook.
I felt this was a book of regret. He regretted how he had lost Carly. He regretted how he hadn't gone with Sammy the night he came by his house. Most of all he regretted not coming back to make peace with his father before he died.
One thing I didn't like was the ending. I thought there were a lot of loose ends that needed to be tied up. But then, maybe he was leaving room for a sequel.