Nine-year-old Jennifer Harris, cursed with a lisp and baby fat, is friendless until she gets up to the courage to talk to Cameron Quick, a poor, awkward boy who is also a social outcast. They are instant soul mates until Cameron mysteriously moves away without saying good bye. Eight years later Jennifer Harris has become Jenna Vaughn, a skinny, popular high-schooler with a hunky boyfriend. Yet she is still haunted by the memories of her childhood friend. When Cameron suddenly reappears at school, Jenna finds it increasingly difficult to keep up her new image and at the same time hide from her past and the horrific secret they share.
I compulsively read this book until I finished but didn’t know what to think afterward. Initially I felt a little let down by the melancholy mood it left me in. Though this is ultimately a hopeful story about love between two teens, it’s definitely not another teen romance novel. I knew this going into it, but I didn’t expect it to be quite as heartbreaking. That being said, Zarr writes excellent characters in whom you become emotionally invested. Her deftly woven flashbacks of the unspeakable experience they shared do make it a real page turner. Zarr’s portrayal of the power of childhood relationships and the permanent marks they make is spot-on. I felt both for the characters and for myself. It brought some of my childhood and teenage wounds to the surface – close friendships that never saw closure; memories of childhood bullying and social exclusion that still hurt. For better or for worse, this is realistic teen fiction at its best 
