Aimee by Mary Beth Miller

One thing that I've really enjoyed about reading this year is that I have forced myself to take out books that have been on my "To Be Read List" since as early as 2000. Out of the few that I've read (four or five, I think), only one has been kind of crappy and then the rest have been gems like this.

Our main character (MC), we don't know her name until about 20 pages from the end, is telling the story through a journal. She is required to keep a journal by her psychologist, who she calls Marge because she looks like a Marge even if that isn't her name.

MC is lonely and living with a terrible guilt. Her best friend, Aimee, killed herself and MC has been accused of having some hand in it, causing the news papers to call her JK for Jack Kevorkian. Through little blips of back story, we learn that MC was part of a tight knit group of friends. They were always together and they were always helping each other. The reader may see Aimee's warning signs early. She exhibits reckless behavior that at first seems typical for a teenager but somehow has a darkness to it.

I enjoyed a lot about this book. I felt so close to the MC because of how it was told. It also felt like a mystery. We don't know why Aimee is upset until late in the book and we don't hear about how she died until nearly the end. This was a fast read, engrossing and well written.