From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes the gripping, emotionally charged novel of a mother who must help her son after he is convicted of a devastating crime.
What do you do when the person you love best becomes unrecognizable to you? For Thea Demetriou, the answer is both simple and agonizing: you keep loving him somehow.
Stefan was just seventeen when he went to prison for the drug-fueled murder of his girlfriend, Belinda. Three years later, he's released to a world that refuses to let him move on. Belinda's mother, once Thea's good friend, galvanizes the community to rally against him to protest in her daughter's memory. The media paints Stefan as a symbol of white privilege and indifferent justice. Neighbors, employers, even some members of Thea's own family turn away.
Meanwhile Thea struggles to understand her son. At times, he is still the sweet boy he has always been; at others, he is a young man tormented by guilt and almost broken by his time in prison. But as his efforts to make amends meet escalating resistance and threats, Thea suspects more forces are at play than just community outrage. And if there is so much she never knew about her own son, what other secrets has she yet to uncover—especially about the night Belinda died?
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes the gripping, emotionally charged novel of a mother who must help her son after he is convicted of a devastating crime.
What do you do when the person you love best becomes unrecognizable to you? For Thea Demetriou, the answer is both simple and agonizing: you keep loving him somehow.
Stefan was just seventeen when he went to prison for the drug-fueled murder of his girlfriend, Belinda. Three years later, he's released to a world that refuses to let him move on. Belinda's mother, once Thea's good friend, galvanizes the community to rally against him to protest in her daughter's memory. The media paints Stefan as a symbol of white privilege and indifferent justice. Neighbors, employers, even some members of Thea's own family turn away.
Meanwhile Thea struggles to understand her son. At times, he is still the sweet boy he has always been; at others, he is a young man tormented by guilt and almost broken by his time in prison. But as his efforts to make amends meet escalating resistance and threats, Thea suspects more forces are at play than just community outrage. And if there is so much she never knew about her own son, what other secrets has she yet to uncover—especially about the night Belinda died?
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Vivienne Leheny's narration delivers the intense feelings of Thea Demetriou, who has just brought her 21-year-old son, Stefan, home from prison. Leheny captures Thea's terrible mix of mother love and disbelieving shock that her son, in a drugged stupor, apparently murdered his girlfriend. Leheny depicts Thea's conflicting feelings of shame at what he did and pride in his creation of the Healing Project, a venture aimed at helping perpetrators make amends. Her frustration turns to anger and sometimes fear at constant protestors, a mysterious caller, and a hooded figure who torments her family. In addition, she is experiencing a niggling feeling that things just don't add up. Leheny's dramatization enhances the emotional power of this gripping story. S.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
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September 1, 2022
New York Times best-selling author Mitchard (Two if by Sea) is back with a novel that questions whether redemption is possible. Stefan was 17 when he was sent to prison for the murder of his girlfriend. It's a crime he has no recollection of because he was flying high, but he still takes full responsibility for it; he was the only other person in the apartment that night. Unless he wasn't. Now he is out of prison and trying to rebuild his life and make amends, but the victim's mother won't let him forget the murder and she's ensured no one else will either. Narrator Vivienne Leheny tells the tale from Stefan's mother's point of view, and she runs the gamut of emotions from horror, fear, love, and pride, to anger and determination, all the while remaining certain that there is more to that fateful night than she or Stefan knows. Leheny has a set of core characters to embody, and she uses accents and cadence to distinguish them. She builds tension well and imbues only the emotions that the author intended. VERDICT Though the plot doesn't completely hold together, libraries will want to purchase because of author popularity.--Jodi L. Israel
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
