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  • p. 17 [Keil retelling how the play occured where he hit a receiver hard enough to hurt him] They [the opposing team] were getting too comfortable. Too lazy, spoiled, entitled. You need to never do that. Never, ever, ever. It is inexcusable.-The author does a wonderful job of sneeking the title in an ... Continue

    p. 17 [Keil retelling how the play occured where he hit a receiver hard enough to hurt him] They [the opposing team] were getting too comfortable. Too lazy, spoiled, entitled. You need to never do that. Never, ever, ever. It is inexcusable.-The author does a wonderful job of sneeking the title in and referring to someone other than Keil. I think it helps the reader become sympathetic towards Keil instead of the girl.p. 59 [The great prom date] They had to ask us to put our shoes back on when we entered the pancake house because we forgot and stood there stupidly by the PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED sign with our shoes in one hand and each other in the other. But they asked us politely, even sweetly. Like there was something charmed and charming at work, and we were all of us in it together.-I loved this. Again, I think it helps to make the reader sympathetic towards Keil. More than once I thought--Did Keil really do something terrible or did the girl just think so? p. 113 I thought about the mistakes I had made in the past. I thought about when things went wrong. And I realized it was never an issue of intent, but intesity. I was a good guy, recall. I could do things and be okay. I could join in and have fun and not cause problems. I didn't have to be afraid of any of this stuff. I didn't have to lock myself away from the action, as long as the action didn't get too hot.This whole novel is uncomfortable. The reader wants to be sympathetic to Keil, but he/she keeps hearing the girl and as the story unfolds the voices of Keil's friends and family making the reader doubt him.

    

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• ― SheReads said on Mar 5, 2007 | Add your feedback

Keir Sarafian may not know much, but he knows himself. And the one thing he knows about himself is that he is a good guy. A guy who's a devoted son and brother, a loyal friend, and a reliable teammate. And maybe most important of all, a guy who understands that when a girl says no, she means it. But that is not what Gigi Boudakian, childhood friend and Keir's lifelong love, says he is. What Gigi says he is seems impossible to Keir....It is something inexcusable -- the worst thing he can imagine, the very opposite of everything he wants to be.

As Keir recalls the events leading up to his fateful night with Gigi, he realizes that the way things look are definitely not the way they really are -- and that it may be all too easy for a good guy to do something terribly wrong.

Chris Lynch has written a no-holds-barred story about truth, lies, and responsibility -- a story that every good guy needs to hear.

• National Book Award Finalistalcoholdate raperapeunreliable narratordrugsbattle of the books 2007awardsbook club?read
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