The book delivers some of Phoebe's fondest memories of Mick—many of them relating the pranks that Mick enjoyed playing on his friends and family—in the form of anecdotes about when the two of them were younger.

Park does this, not through melodrama, but rather through what Publishers Weekly calls a focus "on small moments", such as when Phoebe's father arrives home from the hospital and quietly closes the door to Mick's room.

Publishers Weekly called it "a full-fledged and fully convincing drama", lauding "Park's ability to make the events excruciatingly real while entirely avoiding the mawkish.

In one scene, as Phoebe is experiencing a sense of guilt over Mick's death, her father sighs heavily, and says quietly, "If only I had made him wear his helmet."

However, Publishers Weekly also notes that the theme of bicycle safety "never dominates the story", and that Park never allows the book to descend into a maudlin "cautionary tale.