Summary
Josie Cormier is a high school student with a seemingly-perfect life. She is a diligent student, her boyfriend is the Sterling High School hockey team captain, her friends are always willing to support her, and her mother, Alex Cormier, is a successful judge. However, Josie is constantly afraid that people will discover she is not the girl that everyone expects her to be. Alex is a single mother who strongly disagrees with Josie's desire to meet her father. While Alex is struggling with the concept of motherhood, she becomes a close friend of nurse and midwife, Lacy Houghton. Lacy's older son Joey, dies in a car accident and leaves her younger son, Peter, desperately trying to cope. While Josie is in class, a student carrying two pistols enters the cafeteria and brutally murders ten people, one of which is Josie's boyfriend, Matt Royston. The entire town is engulfed in grief. They identify the gunman as Peter Houghton, a student who suffered from bullying his whole life. This compelling novel asks the question: Who is the real killer? Peter Houghton or Society?