I gobbled this up quickly. It's a great story with great characters and full of emotion, but it's the trial and the mystery of what really happened that kept me reading quickly. It involves a teenage girl found dead at the bottom of stairs in her home and her boyfriend who's charged with her murder. The chapters alternate between her life moving backwards from the incident and the life of her boyfriend’s mom moving forward from the incident plus plenty of flashbacks of the victim’s life and the boyfriend’s mom’s life. There are several twists, one of which is pretty obvious if you know who the coauthor is.

The mystery held my attention, but the story is more than that. I know some will be turned off because it tackles what they'll call political and/or social justice topics. First, if you recognize Finney Boylan's name, then you shouldn't be surprised. However, even if you only recognize Picoult's name, you also shouldn't be surprised. Second, the lives, traits, and emotions of these characters are shared by many people in real life. These stories deserve to be told. Like Picoult says in the afterword, "I hope that Lily's journey can be educational--but more important, I hope it inspires compassion." That's the great thing about fiction. You can read about people who live different lives than you. It would be boring to only read books you closely identify with.

This started off so well, and I was eager to see how the story unfolded after the contestants settled in and then the crew suddenly disappeared. However, the book grew pretty dark and not much really happened. I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened, and I'm sorry I was so disappointed given how good the first half is. However, the ending is abrupt and pretty vague. It turns out the answers are probably buried in the middle, and I wish they would have been confirmed in the end. I won't be recommending this.