In a single night--graduation night--Thomas has to decide: do what
everyone has always expected of him, or forge an entirely new path?
Bryan Bliss's absorbing examination of one boy struggling with
expectations and realities will appeal to readers of Sara Zarr and Chris
Crutcher.
Thomas is supposed to leave for the Army in the morning. His father was
Army. His brother, Jake, is Army--is a hero, even, with the medals to
prove it. Everyone expects Thomas to follow in that fine tradition. But
Jake came back from overseas a completely different person, and that has
shaken Thomas's certainty about his own future. And so when his
long-estranged friend Mallory suggests one last night of adventure,
Thomas takes her up on the distraction. Over the course of this single
night, Thomas will lose, find, resolve, doubt, drive, explore, and leap
off a bridge. He'll also face the truth of his brother's post-traumatic
stress disorder and of his own courage. In Bryan Bliss's deft hands,
graduation night becomes a night to find yourself, to find each other,
to find a path, and to know that you always have a place--and people--to
come back to.