I think this was the most painful book I have ever read. I don't mean at all that it was bad-- it was very well written, with plenty of variety in the style, but it was painful emotionally for me. I had to stop reading multiple times just so I wouldn't burst out crying. Suicide is a painful subject, but Alan Gibbons has done a wonderful job with showing how bullying can affect more than just one person. ( )

We hear this story in turn about from two sources – the diary of John, who we know from the start has died, and the recollections of school mate Annie. Although never a friend of John’s, they happened to meet some months before on holidays a long way from home. John is not someone she has paid any attention to - in fact she rather fancied one of the boys who turns out to have been tormenting John for years. But she learns from him something of the bullying he has suffered and sees first hand how harshly John’s father treats him.

Who is responsible for John’s death? Annie thinks she knows and returns to England bent on exposing the bullies. But could she be implicated? Her friendship with John stirred up feelings in him that were more than she wanted. Has she done the right thing? Can she accept that others have learned from this hard experience? Why didn’t John do more to expose the classmates who terrorised him? And did he really intend to kill himself?

Alan Gibbons stirs up emotions and asks us to put ourselves in the places of the major characters of this drama. Many of us will identify with the friends and teachers in the story who are very wary of causing a fuss, but also played their part. A gripping read. ( )