prickly

It blooms as the pages turn, like a prickly flower, beginning with the story of the corpulent, nerdy, sci-fi-obsessed title character growing up in Paterson, N.J.

The prickly comedy of male-pattern personality collapse gives way to wisdom, something that “Sacramento” has in abundance.

She describes herself as “prickly and standoffish, selectively extroverted, largely humorless.”

The deadpan humor and psychological peril of it all is handled with prickly finesse for a good while, even as the darkness begins to set in on their desires and dreams.

Orchard Hills’ zone is filled with prickly pear cacti, Japanese honeysuckle and Formosa firethorn.