Hmm...there is just so much to say yet I am not sure if I can really express it. This book was just a tad bit different than I had originally thought but I have to say I was definitely drawn to the story. I tried many times to put it down but I couldn't.

It is emotional and at times a little hard to read. I found myself feeling everything as I read it. Sadness, happiness, rage and disgust. There were parts that were funny and there were parts where I felt the tears building up.

A phone call at 3 am and the suicide of the preacher's seventeen year old son irrevocably change the lives of an entire town.

***********(This May Possibly Contain Spoiler's)**********************

Terry Bachelder the high school music teacher runs a gay men's support group in his small town where it is not widely known that he is gay, especially to those at the school. He knows what can happen if people in town find out he's gay and has been teaching their kids. The last thing he wants is to lose his job that he loves because of the narrow-minded members of his community.

Daniel Thompson is the seventeen year old son of Reverand Isaac Thompson. He knows the bible inside and out and has a strong belief in God. He knows he is Gay and has come to accept it but he also is very unhappy and can't go on any longer the way he is.

Daniel calls the number of the support group that he got off of a flier to tell Terry that it's all too much. Without giving anything away about who he is (although he leaves a small clue about his name) or his plan, he hangs up leaving Terry to ponder who had called him and whether or not he could have helped him more.

The next day he finds out it was Daniel and that he killed himself in his father's church. He is racked with guilt that he wasn't able to do anything and wonders what will happen if anyone finds out he spoke with the boy before his death. He soon finds out and his worst fears come true as the schoolboard, parents and church set out to crucify him.

Jonah Riverside was in Daniel's class, went to church with him, sang with him in the choir and admired him from afar. He and his mother's boyfriend discovered Daniel's body and now he can't get it out of his mind. He doesn't want anyone to know he is gay but he needs to talk to someone and he doesn't know where to turn. His only options seem to be the only openly gay kid at school Eric Jacobs and his favorite teacher Mr. B.

Eric is the only kid at school comfortable enough to live out and proud but he is also tormented by everyone. He has no friends and is constantly being targeted by the school's homophobic students. No one knows that he and Daniel had secretly been seeing each other. No one knows the pain he is in now that Daniel is gone.

As Terry goes through a police investigation, the possibility of losing the job he loves and having to deal with the town hating him for being gay he realizes things in this town need to change.

Jonah has to go through the emotional turmoil of being gay and too afraid of the consequences of admitting it along with building a friendship with Eric the school pariah.

Eric has in his possession something that can help clear Mr. B's name and convince everyone that he didn't have an inappropriate relationship with Daniel. Unfortunately what clears Terry in turn causes the entire town to hate Eric even more and has the potential to ruin his life as well as others.

This book deals with it all: suicide, religion, drugs, sexuality, bullying and even murder. It also deals with love, forgiveness and redemption.
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