The book’s major strength is its depth of character. In the end, all wrongs are righted and a happy resolution awaits all of the characters. Eric and his swim coach do a great deal to help Sarah, though sometimes at a heavy cost. Afraid to return home, tough, unrelenting Sarah must learn to accept help from others in order to heal her life. Her dad is a horribly abusive and violent man and is responsible for nearly murdering her mother in addition to giving her the scars that mar her face. I’d call that a bad place to live'” (22).īut Eric discovers that Sarah’s life is even worse than he thought when she confides in him the reason she is faking her unresponsive state. There’s no place to hide and it never lets up. When I looked at her close, when I saw her without her razor-sharp words and her fire –all the stuff she cuts us up with – she looked gone… Every day when she gets up, she knows she has to bring her scarred-up face to school, knowing what everyone thinks and won’t say. “’Sarah Byrnes is up there just staring into space. So he is doubly saddened when his normally tough friend lapses into a vegetative state: Sarah Byrnes’s heavily scarred face and Eric’s weight problem bind them together as social outcasts, so much so that Eric delays losing weight for fear of losing her friendship. Eric, an overweight teen who has recently shed some pounds after joining the swimming team, remembers when Sarah Byrnes was his only friend. Eric and Sarah Byrnes have been friends for years.
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