HELEN, reluctant homecoming queen, looks forward to going away to college, even if it means she has to be temporarily parted from Michael, the one person who truly understands her. He's told her that he will wait through centuries for her.

JOSHUA is tormented by his role in his sister Angela's accident. He feels trapped by the pledge he made to God and by his lifelong friendship with Andy, who has taken to hanging out with the dangerously cold Victor Munger.

MICHAEL hates the fact that he and Helen have to sneak out to parties in order to be together, because her parents are suspicious of his family and his artistic leanings.

ANDY is just fooling around with his dad's hunting rifle--messing with Josh's head--when it accidentially goes off.

It is a moment that will change all their lives forever.

Josh makes a vow after his sister Angela's near-drowning: if God will keep her alive, he will become a priest. But Josh's promise is shattered the moment his friend Andy picks up a rifle at the end of a drinking party. The gun goes off, killing a classmate who lingered too long. Andy refuses to confess to the accident; instead, he forces Josh to help him hide the body. Then Andy swears Josh to secrecy by threatening to kill him-or worse, Angela. How can Josh protect her when he is racked with guilt? This view into a faithful boy's private hell is eye-opening and stomach-twisting.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 9-12. After a party at his father's isolated cabin, Andy is kidding around with friends Josh and Victor when he points a rifle and it accidentally goes off, killing Helen, who is coming downstairs. Terrified, the boys drug Helen's boyfriend, Michael, and bury Helen on a neighbor's property. What begins as a story about an accident . . . develops into a carefully crafted, complex character study of young men reacting to the horrifying events of a single evening. While delving into the psychological torment each teen endures, Miller explores the enormous influence that adults have on teenagers' lives. Told in alternating chapters by Josh and Michael, the novel contrasts the boys' private anguish and guilt with larger questions about organized religion, fate, and good and evil in society. Miller, who gave us Aimee (2001), has written another edgy novel that skillfully weaves together numerous strands to create a horrifying yet thought-provoking and disturbingly real scenario. . . Frances Bradburn Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

The subject of Miller's (Aimee) riveting novel could come right out of newspaper headlines: A gun accidentally goes off and leaves homecoming queen Helen Mitchell dead. Here, the author explores the impact of the trauma on two young men peripherally involved in the incident. Josh, a devout Catholic who witnesses the shooting, is pressured by his friends to cover up traces of their involvement. Already wracked with guilt over another accident that left his sister in a coma, Josh searches for redemption. Meanwhile, Michael, the victim's boyfriend, who literally slept through the shooting, has fled from an abusive home and resettled in another city. He doesn't find out that Helen is dead until two weeks later when her body is discovered in a shallow grave. With the help of two supportive adults, Michael avoids becoming a murder suspect and works to uncover the truth about what happened the night Helen was killed. Alternating between Josh's and Michael's perspectives, the author delves deep into the psyches of these two sensitive and vulnerable boys, tracing different stages of their emotional pain and how they come to terms with the tragedy. . . Ages 14-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-Seventeen-year-old Andy accidentally kills Helen while taunting Josh and Victor with a hunting rifle at a late-night party. Devout Josh is desperate to call 911 but Andy and Victor threaten to kill him and his family if he tells. The three boys bury Helen's body in the woods. Josh is devoured by guilt, fear, and shame; can't eat or sleep; and begins to hear voices. The chapters alternate between Helen's boyfriend, Michael, who had passed out and missed the shooting, and Josh, as Michael struggles with stupefying grief and Josh tries to stay alive and sane. Miller portrays both young men with empathy and love, and their deeply honest voices maintain the narrative. The first and last chapters are Helen's, and her voice, and Michael's memories of her, are equally natural and sympathetic. Taoist proverbs start Michael's chapters and lines of a psalm start Josh's to set the mood . . . [A] gripping and suspenseful story. . . . Her beautifully rendered narrators manage to compel readers on to the last page.-Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.