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During his junior year of boarding school, Alex is involved in a swimming accident that results in a close friend's death. There's more to the story than Alex and golden boy Glen reveal. Through the narration of Steven Boyer, listeners are in Alex's head as he deals with the guilt, grief, and fear of covering up the truth. Boyer creates tension in the transitions from Alex to his poetry and journal to Glen's voice, though at times they can be hard to follow. Boyer's quietly intense vocals highlight Alex's penchant for poetry while balancing the need to tell his story, including his obsession with his English teacher, Miss Dovecott. Listeners become intimately linked with Alex as he finds his own voice. E.A.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 25, 2011
Following in the tradition of John Knowles's A Separate Peace, this eloquent first novel set in 1982 at an all-male boarding school explores circumstances surrounding the accidental death of a student. Seventeen-year-old Thomas's obituary states that he died "as the result of a swimming accident," but his classmate Alex knows that's not the whole story. He attempts to explain what really happened to Thomas in the pages of his secret journal, yet the more he writes the more complicated the truth becomes. Hubbard leads readers down a twisting path to extract bits of truth from journal entries layered with emotion and warped by deception. A day of reckoning forces Alex to choose between his encouraging English teacher, with whom he is desperately infatuated, and the school's golden boy, Glen. Hubbard has a superb handle on her boarding school setting, as Alex, a gifted writer who's influenced by Melville and the poetry they study, turns his eye on the inextricably entwined forces of honor, loyalty, masculinity, and sexuality that dominate the Birch School, as well as his guilt and search for identity. A powerful, ambitious debut. Ages 14âup.

August 1, 2012
Gr 9 Up-Alex, 16, struggles with both grief and first love in this coming-of-age tale set in a prestigious all-boys' boarding school. After one of Alex's close friends accidentally drowns in the local river, Alex is caught between Glenn, the best friend he wants to trust, and the teacher he loves who may have seen more than she should have at the river that day. Alex takes solace in his writing, penning his first "novel" in a journal hidden at the library. While Glenn tries to draw Alex deeper into his scheme to be rid of the suspicious young English teacher, Alex finally finds his own voice and has to make some tough choices. Strong themes of friendship, loyalty, morality, homophobia, and self-awareness pervade this compact tale. Told in a series of journaled vignettes, narrator Steven Boyer aptly portrays Alex's uncertain and somber character. Only the most patient listeners, though, will be able to value the slow tension built as small scenes build to reveal larger secrets and the lengths the characters will go to keep them. This novel will be better appreciated in print format. An additional purchase for most libraries.-"Jessica Miller, West Springfield Public Library, MA"

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.