My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

Turtle and her dad live far away from the world in the hills near Mendocino. They live the life of hermits ,a solitary existence where the only people Turtle comes into contact with are her dad, teachers, an angry bus driver and her grandfather. She has no friends and spends all her free time roaming the hills and coast. Her father, Martin, is tough and gentle, a parent and a tyrant, abusive and manipulative so Turtle is caught between love and fear. She is tough as nails but also so fragile and her story will break your heart. Her teacher and people at the middle school want to help her catch up with her studies, an old friend of her parents worries about what kind of relationship they have and her grandfather finds fault with a father who is teaching his twelve year old daughter how to hunt, shoot a variety of guns and survive in the hard world he sees himself in. It will take Jacob, an older boy who reaches out to Turtle to teach her about love and suddenly she finds herself with divided loyalties that could be very dangerous. Vivid, profound writing and a heroine with a heart of gold, Gabriel Tallent is one debut author who is going places.