Book Talks: The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo

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This book. This. Freaking. Book.
This.
Freaking.
Book.
When a friend was telling me about this book, I was under the impression that it would be good.

I'm sorry. I don't quite understand how I feel about this book, so I'm just kind of typing aimlessly, trying to gather my opinion.
It's about a boy, I didn't bother to remember his name, who is going through a lot of inner turmoil, and then POOF. A lion appears. Then, he meets a girl who is also going through a lot of inner turmoil, and he's like, "I have a lion!" That's the gist of it.
I'm not even joking.
Anyway, this book is really short and I feel like it had no plot. I read it in just a little over an hour, and felt like it didn't have much of a resolution or a story or anything. So, let's talk about the book.
<SPOILER ALERT! I'M BASICALLY GOING TO REVEAL EVERYTHING ABOUT THE BOOK, SO IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT, LEAVE!>  Okay, Rob finds a tiger in the woods. Rob meets Sistine. Sistine hates him immediately and supplies no good reason why. Rob shows Sistine the tiger and he fantasizes about the tiger. Sistine says "I think we should let this extremely lethal tiger go, just because." And Rob says, "Okay." Then, the lion gets shot and Rob has an emotional breakdown. Duh. There are beware of dog signs. LIONS ARE NO SAFER. Aside from that, I like that all of Kate DiCamillo's characters have interesting quirks and hobbies and even names. Take Sistine, for example. She's a sassy girl from the north who wears dresses but doesn't like to and doesn't take nothin' from no one and gets in tons of fights at school. She is a character. Anyway, what was the plot? Rob misses his mom and shoves stuff inside of a suitcase. Is that really a plot?
I don't think I dislike this book, but it was . . . unique, for sure. <SPOILER>