Mirkat Always Reading

While Patrick lies in a hospital bed, comatose and fighting for his life after being beaten and left for dead in an apparent anti-gay hate crime at the gas station/mini-mart where he works, his friend Cat launches her own investigation. The local police seem ready to assume that outsiders passing through town were responsible for the crime.

Until three years before, when they were both 13, Cat and Patrick were the best of friends. She pulled away from her friends after suffering a trauma she hasn't been able to talk about to anyone. She became a "ghost girl," and now, in the course of her investigation, she needs to bring herself back to the people she pulled away from.

The book pulled me along, as I needed to know what happened. I found the reveal much less surprising than Cat did. I agreed with the book's overall messaging, though sometimes I felt mildly condescended to. I write this while fully acknowledging that I am not the book's target audience (when my Forever YA book club discusses this book I will be celebrating my 53rd birthday).

There was a line near the end that was something like "it's right to be sad about sad things." So glad to have that explained to me!