Explorations in Canadian Economic History Essays in Honour of Irene M. Spry Book

Eh. Shapiro is a decent enough writer to keep my attention, but falls short in terms of characterization (no one had personality unless it was extreme and highly unrealistic) as well as certain basic plot devices.
This novel seemed to be a weak attempt at mimicking We Need to Talk About Kevin. Once again a couple struggles with a problem child, once again the parents differ over how to deal with it, once again a story is told and revealed in pieces throughout.
Thing is, though, is that this story really bombed in all the ways that WNTTAK prevailed. The problem girl, Katie, leaves home to go to camp a straight A overachiever and returns sullen, pierced, and obnoxious. Her potty mouth declarations to her parents don't seem to trigger the sort of reaction one would think they would, and the parents are worried but don't actually interact with Katie in any sort of realistic way. Katie's change is never explained, and her progress is not at all explored, until one day she trips down the stairs holding her baby brother, who then has some sort of concussion and later shows delays in development. Somehow this leads Katie to accuse her dad of molesting her (never explored) though he clearly did not and boom, marriage falls apart as does his employment at the local high school and Katie's life as she is sent to some sort of boarding school prison for wealthy girls who can't behave.
What exactly was the point of this story? What did anyone learn? Why did Katie become what she did? Why were these parents so dirt poor yet both came from very wealthy homes? Why was Rachel (K's mom)'s mom such a freaking jerk, the other extreme character, of course unexplored and her presence there important ... how?
Readable but pretty poorly done.