Like the 15-year-old hero of Lyga's debut novel, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, narrator Josh Mendel has a female champion, who witnesses his inner struggles and roots for him to conquer them. The book opens with a scene between the two: on Rachel Madison's 13th birthday, she has connived, in a game of Spin the Bottle, to point the bottle at Josh. She takes him into the closet, where things quickly spin out of control. The action then skips ahead five years. Now 18-year-old Josh, in a scene with his parents, unveils the cause of his sexually aggressive behavior: Josh's history teacher molested him when he was 12. Josh feels unique. He's a gifted baseball player who has never had less than an A since third grade. For this, his best friend, Zik, calls Josh "Iron Man," comparing him with Cal Ripken, Jr., and his unbroken streak of 2,632 consecutive games played ("People who like baseball talk about home run records and hitting records and pitching records--they bring up Bonds and McGwire and Clemens and Wood," Josh observes, "But people who love baseball know that Ripken's record is the record"). With these moments, Lyga emphasizes the normal interests Josh has, including a budding sexuality. The boy notices how attractive Evelyn Sherman is, her tight-fitting skirts, her cleavage. She, on the other hand, tells Josh how mature he is. As his history teacher, she asks his mother if Josh can be the subject of her research project, a pretext for bringing him home with her after school each afternoon. Gradually, she gives him wine and makes him dinner when her husband is late, and soon things progress to the bedroom ("You know, Josh, what we're doing is fine when two people love each other," she says, even as she repeats her refrain, "Just don't tell your parents, ok? Our secret").
Against these flashbacks of Eve, the author juxtaposes the present-day down-to-earth exchanges between Rachel and Josh, fellow seniors trying to pick up their friendship where it left off before Eve hit the scene. Friends and fellow jocks, the two share a trust that predates the frightening episode on her birthday, and together they learn to forgive and to grow up. Ultimately, this is a novel about healing, and the need to see things clearly in order to accept the past and move forward.--Jennifer M. Brown