This is such a tough book…very well told but devastating. Do kids really have to read this stuff? Yes…because it’s the world we live in? Because maybe it will prepare them…thus prevent a tragedy? I really don’t know… I wish for a safer world for our kids. Spoiler alert…first the basketball star is killed in an accident while he and his friends are drinking and driving. Then, his best friend who was the driver and survived the crash…tries to adjust but can’t and commits suicide. This is the first book in a trilogy about Hazelwood High School. It’s important to have this in our collection, but it will be a difficult one to recommend.