In this story, the main character Jenny is dealing with a lot in her life. A young girl was murdered in her home town and her best friend has been missing for three weeks. Everyone assumes she knows what happened to her best friend Chloe, kids at school whisper behind her back, and the police interview her often. When Helen, is found dead, Jenny is shocked that the police, and the rest of the community aren't as interested in investigating this crime- instead they are focusing on where Chloe has gone. Jenny starts to realize that because Helen lives on the reservation, her murder is not as high a priority as Chloe's. Jenny struggles to come to terms with this and starts to do her own investigation - both to help find Helen's killer and to avoid dealing with Chloe's disappearance.
This story had so many themes and ideas: bullying, sexual assault, racism, sexism, life in small town Ontario to name a few. It was also a great mystery as well- Jenny does quite a bit of digging into Helen's story and learns not only about Helen, but also what life is like for some people on the reservation who are confronted with racism every day.
It was a great story- I really enjoyed Jenny's character- she was so real and troubled. While this book deals with many mature topics, I think it would be ok in an Intermediate class. I would suggest reading it first though, there are some topics that would need further discussions.
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