The Dead of Summer — Heather Balog

Adults insist that you never completely remember your childhood. They say that as the years pass by, those little details that once captured your undivided attention become fuzzy around the edges. As time marches on, the sharp memories start crinkling up like a piece of newspaper burning in a campfire; first you can just make out the sentences, and then, the white hot fire laps at the pages, blurring them and obscuring the actual words. Until all that you are left with is a fine white ash and the vague memories of what used to be. As long as I'm breathing, I know I will never forget my sixteenth summer. It's been years, but that summer is etched finely in my memory. That was the summer I finally kissed a boy, found the body in the basement, and discovered that keeping secrets just might kill you. And believe me, that isn't something you forget too easily, no matter how hard you try. And I sure as hell have tried. Kennedy Ryan is a normal fifteen year old girl with a best friend who tells her what to do, an agoraphobic mother, a crush on an inappropriate boy...and a body in her basement. Totally normal, right?