At the outset of Marthe Jocelyn’s latest novel for teen readers, her 15-year-old protagonist poses a question: “Would you rather know what’s going to happen? Or not know?” The potent foreshadowing of Natalie’s question contrasts with the lighthearted game she and her friends play, always asking each other to choose between two distasteful options, with questions such as “Would you rather eat a rat with the fur still on or eat sewage straight from the pipe?”

Natalie is on good terms with her older sister Claire, who will be college-bound in the fall. When Claire is involved in a serious car accident, Nat and her family are faced with terrible choices, like those in the game. Natalie realizes that the lives of her sister and everyone around her are changed forever.

Jocelyn (author of the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award-winning Mable Riley) creates believable characters and dialogue, true to their time and place. Natalie is a typical teen – cynical, self-absorbed, clever, and, at times, almost callous in her eagerness to return to normalcy – but her emotional journey always feels authentic. Nat’s parents are understandably wrapped up in their own emotional turmoil, revealing their weaknesses at times when Nat needs them to be strong. Natalie says near the conclusion, “If you told me this whole story and it didn’t happen to me? I’d say screw hope – if you stick a hopeful ending on there, it’ll be a total lie. But….” Both Nat and readers are left with some hope, but not of the pat “time heals all wounds” type.

Readers looking for an intelligent, edgier alternative to Lurlene McDaniel’s soap-tragedies and the like will appreciate Jocelyn’s honest, emotionally non-manipulative handling of Nat’s sad situation.