When he was twelve, Josh Mendel developed a close relationship with his history teacher—disturbingly close. But Josh has never fully comprehended that Mrs. Sherman manipulated him into a sexual relationship. Even though the facts of the case came out in court and even though Mrs. Sherman has been in prison, he still thinks of what happened as his fault. Now a senior in high school, Josh is eager to move on, to get out of the town where everyone seems to know what happened but no one knows how he really feels. He keeps having flashbacks—flickers he calls them—just like the one that happened in a closet with Rachel Madison five years before, the incident that broke everything wide open. Barry Lyga’s daring novel is uncomfortable to read and hard to put down. Lyga reveals the physical and emotional aspects of Josh’s relationship with his teacher with unflinching honesty while remaining true to the perspective of a boy—still a child—who could not possibly begin to truly grasp the psychological implications of what was going on. Still struggling with the aftermath six years later, Josh and his family are on the edge: his parents marriage is clearly failing, while Josh himself is sabotaged by guilt and anger that affects his relationships with everyone from his baseball coach to his best friend to Rachel Madison, who has unexpectedly come back into his life, offering compassion and understanding he doesn’t know how to accept. (Age 14 and older)

After five years of fighting his way past flickers of memory about the teacher who molested him and the incident that brought the crime to light, eighteen-year-old Josh gets help in coping with his molester's release from prison when he finally tells his best friends the whole truth.