School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up-Thirty-seven years after the murder of one of his high school classmates, Wolf tells a fictionalized version of the events leading up to the fateful Saturday night in small-town Virginia in 1979. The story is told from the alternating points of view of six characters, five of whom are friends with Christopher and one who turns out to be his killer. Christopher is a kind person, someone everyone likes, and his death is shocking not only to his friends but also to the entire town. Wolf gives voice to the friendships and rivalries of several of the teenagers who interacted with Christopher in the weeks before his death, and the ensemble cast of narrators (Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, Will Damron, Whitney Dykhouse, Scott Merriman, Lauren Ezzo, Scott Lange, and Jesse Lee) do an amazing job conveying tone, humor, and emotion. This offering is part crime fiction, part physiological thriller, and part tribute to a friend taken far too soon. Relating to a time well before cell phones and even cable television, this can easily sit within a historical fiction collection. The author's note at the end of the narration sets the record straight on how much of the novel is based on fact. VERDICT Recommended for teen listeners of crime stories.-Suzanne Dix, The Seven Hills School, Cincinnati © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.