As usual, Jodi Picoult does not waste time developing her characters, preferring to make most main characters only children of deceased parents. A major plot problem that I could not get past was that the judge for the trial that ensues after this high school shooting is the mother of a student whose boyfriend was killed in the shooting. Furthermore, the mother used to be best friends with the shooter's mother. Come on! That would never EVER happen in the judicial system. I find Picoult's work to be average at best and filled with discrepancies and poor editing.