This is a photo-journalistic novel about a teenage boy dealing with the guilt and trauma of the memories of the last day spent with his best friend. The photos in the novel are pictures that were left for him by a mysterious source, reminding him of that day and the difficult choice he made.Besides being completely and utterly depressing, this was a really excellent book. The author uses the [s]strikethrough[/u] to make it seem like a journal entry or letter the protagonist is writing to his best friend in her absence, with the words crossed out acting as thoughts or memories that he's thinking about or reliving in spite of himself. There are sections of the book where whole paragraphs are crossed out, and that combined with the train-of-thought writing could be difficult for some to follow, but I enjoyed the change of pace from the standard narrative. I loved the creative use of photography, especially when reading how the author had come up with the book -- the photographer gave him the pictures one by one (without having read the story) and the author wove them into the book, never knowing what picture might be next. The end result is a fragmented novel full of suspense and emotion.My biggest complaint, though, is that it is so terribly depressing and full of teenage angst, guilt, frustration, and sadness. It's a good thing it's such a quick read, otherwise it'd be a real downer.
