Isolated and inseparable, Josie and Jack are teenagers who are practically raising themselves. Their father, a physics professor who is often abusive, keeps them out of school and only sees them on the weekends.
Without their mother, Josie has only had a champion in Jack, and likewise, Jack thrives on the knowledge that Josie needs him. He is charming and magnetic while Josie is shy and acquiescent.
The teens spend their lives drinking and smoking while they study Greek and advanced physics and basically enjoy the time on their own. Their life seems almost ideal yet for the underlying tones that this relationship is not quite as innocent as it seems. Then one day Jack manipulates Josie into seducing the pharmacist’s son so they can get some drugs and from then on several events will occur that will take the characters to another city, a life of petty crime and through some self-destructive behavior.
It’s not easy to read the novel and not get a palpable feeling of impending doom for the teens. Each chapter is a new revelation into the personality of Jack and the slow maturation of Josie’s character.
Braffet’s debut novel is a powerful page-turner. It’s hard not to feel like a voyeur when reading this book and you almost want to close the book but you can’t help but want to know what will happen next. A creepy tale with a shocking ending.