It's a YA book about a high school student who had a sexual affair with a teacher when he was twelve. Now he's eighteen, about to graduate, and he is *angry*. And he has every right to be. He feels extremely ostracized, mostly by his self. He hangs onto what he has -- baseball and math, as he has flashbacks to his sexual assaults/incidents of abuse/molestations... I guess there's no real good word to call it. Because there's a huge double standard when it comes to this sort of thing. And it's nice that the story is written in such a way that there's no thing you can point to and say "if we eliminate that, this'll never happen again".

And it fascinates me. Not to diminish anyone who was in this situation but, as far as the "dominant, aggressive, older male with younger female" relationship goes in writing, it's been done to death. "Dominant, aggressive older female, younger male" is not. Especially with stories like Mary Kay Letourneau, Debra Lafave, and Pamela Rogers Turner. It follows the mental state of the boy nicely, as he struggles for normalcy in his current relationships, and how his past troubles color him. But he's really coloring himself.

Once again Lyga knocks it out of the park (baseball!). I haven't read a book of his yet that I didn't like profusely. I got exactly what I wanted -- an answer to the question of how a boy gets in a sexual relationship with a teacher. The only thing I wish was that we got a little more insight into the teacher. We never really learn her deal. Was she abused? Was she just unhappy? What was her motivation in starting this relationship? She makes a confession, so there has to be something in there. Maybe this is like real life, where the state keeps the victim and victimizer in the dark about each other's state. And that is the scariest part.