Debbie West (Children's Literature)
Keir Sarafian thinks he is a great guy, that he could never rape a girl, but that is exactly what happens when he abuses alcohol and drugs. At first he is only accused of hurting a football player in a game, thinking he has only done what he is supposed to do. When he tries to comfort a female friend on graduation night because her boyfriend did not come to graduation, things turn ugly. They go to college at night to visit his sisters, who are not at home. Then he lies to her about sending their limousine driver home without them, then takes her to a college dormitory room. By then he is so high on drugs that he does not hear her crying and screaming to make him stop. This is not a book for young children, as it contains violence, drug abuse, sexual content, and descriptive language. The entire book shows Keir actively leading himself up to this one point where he loses his nice guy image. Then it ends with him lying on the bed after almost raping the same girl a second time. She has confronted him after the rape and he wants to show her he is not a bad person. So when he realizes what he has done, he curls up on the bed and waits. No one says what happens to him afterward. It is a book with no happy ending, not really any ending at all. It just leaves the reader wondering what happens to both Keir and his victim. 2005, Athenum Books for Young Readers/Simon and Schuster, $16.95. Ages 16 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 20))
Lynch has hit a homerun with this provocative, important read about Keir, a self-proclaimed "good guy" headed for college on a football scholarship. With two sisters in college, Keir lives alone with his lonely, widowed father, who treats Keir more like a buddy than a son. After Keir accidentally cripples an opponent during a football game, things really go awry, especially since his victim lets him off the hook with a letter of forgiveness. With his name cleared, his peers christen him "Killer," a nickname that seems to give him license to do all sorts of unsavory things, such as hazing classmates, vandalizing a statue, trying cocaine and ultimately, date raping Gigi Boudakian. The underage drinking and recreational drug use is handled fairly cavalierly up until the stint with cocaine, but readers will still feel uneasy as the well-crafted sequence of Keir's reckless behaviors crescendos toward a disastrous end. Keir's self-delusion, irresponsibility and sense of invincibility are dangerous, sending the important message to all teens, particularly high-school heroes and their would-be victims, that some things are inexcusable. 2005, Ginee Seo Books/Atheneum, 176p, $16.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 13 up. Starred Review. © 2005 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paula Rohrlick (KLIATT Review, November 2005 (Vol. 39, No. 6))
Keir, a high school senior, thinks of himself as a “good guy.” So how could he possibly feel responsible when he cripples a football player on the field, earning himself the nickname “Killer”? After all, it was a perfect tackle. How could he have tormented some of the school’s soccer players, kidnapping them for “a few hours of involuntary skinny-dipping,” and destroyed town statues in a drunken rampage? And most of all, how could he have raped Gigi, the girl he adores, the night of their senior prom? Keir is sure he’s done nothing wrong, though the wrecks he leaves in his wake indicate otherwise. This provocative tale by the author of Freewill and other YA novels would make an interesting companion piece to Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, which treats rape from a teenage girl’s viewpoint. Keir is a good example of an unreliable narrator, whose version of reality and sense of himself, the reader eventually comes to realize, are dangerously off base. As his sister points out, “You make things up to be what you want them to be,” and his weak father lets him get away with it. Keir’s spare, dramatically told cautionary tale is well worth reading. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: S--Recommended for senior high school students. 2005, Simon & Schuster, Atheneum, 176p., $16.95. Ages 15 to 18.

Charlotte Decker (Library Media Connection, August/September 2006)
Keir knows he could not have raped Gigi. He believes that once Gigi understands that he is a good guy, she will see that it is impossible for him to have done something so inexcusable. Thus begins Keir's account of events that occurred during his senior year. As he tells his side of things, Keir appears to be less than honest, even to himself. Although he swears that every bad involvement was not his fault, a pattern emerges to create doubt that Keir understands reality. As the crucial evening spirals out of control, Keir crosses the line because he feels that the people he loves have let him down. When he sees himself as Gigi sees him, Keir accepts that he has raped her and must face the consequences. This is a powerful story of teen self-absorption leading to criminal behavior. As Keir recounts the events, which should prove he is a good person, there is a darker side that casts doubt on Keir's innocence. The writing is brilliant. Although the subject matter is distasteful, Chris Lynch has made Keir a likable character. The reader, for as long as possible, wants to give Keir the benefit of the doubt. This is an important book that should be read and discussed by all teens. Highly Recommended. 2005, Atheneum (Simon & Schuster), 165pp., $16.95 hc. Ages 15 up.

Deborah Stevenson, Associate Editor (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 2005 (Vol. 59, No. 4))
The way it looks is not the way it is,” insists Keir Sarafian. Here’s the way it looks: Keir, a senior jock afraid of his past failures and upcoming challenges, spent graduation night as a friend with his unrequited love, and raped her. Here’s how Keir thinks it is: “Good guys don’t do bad things. Good guys understand that no means no, and so I could not have done this because I understand, and I love Gigi Boudakian.” As Keir’s narration unfolds, it becomes clear that Keir has been struggling for a while with the disparity between unpleasant appearances and rationalized actuality: the aggressor in a football tackle that crippled a player (“No, that’s not right. I didn’t cripple a guy. He got crippled, and I was part of it”), he knows he’s not culpable because he did what he was told; the participant in a drunken team spree that involved vandalizing statues and tormenting soccer players, he’s annoyed that the videotape of the incident focused so much on the ugly part and missed the wonderful high spirits and comradeship (“In the mean light of day an event from the night before might look plain nasty, but that does not automatically render it nasty, in its context”). Lynch superbly constructs his protagonist, whose self-deception colors his narration without entirely erasing hints of the truth he’s intent on reshaping. The book drops in shots of contradiction with the reactions and comments of other people (especially Keir’s college-attending sister, whom Keir and Gigi spontaneously visit in their drunken grad-night rambles), and even Keir himself reveals the possibility of alternative viewpoints as he essentially considers and rejects them. The story is suspenseful despite essentially placing the ending up front--how, readers will wonder, did such a person come to this point? The book generates plenty of sympathy for Keir, with his closeness with his father and his yearning for Gigi, and it’s only gradually clear that Keir’s moral questionings are actually reverse negotiations, where he constructs the reality backward from whatever answer makes him the okay guy he knows he must be. Readers may find that Keir’s moral shadings cause them to reexamine their own self-judgments, and they’ll be absorbed by his compelling, uneasy, and ultimately tragic account. Review Code: R* -- Denotes books of special distinction. (c) Copyright 2005, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2005, 'Seo/Atheneum', 176p, $16.95. Grades 9-12.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2006)
When Keir Sarafian cripples an opposing football player, he calls the act "an unfortunately magnificent hit." He defines his heavy drinking as recreational camaraderie, and date rape as a declaration of love. Keir chronicles the events of his senior year in this provocative novel, layering more elaborate excuses on his increasingly violent behavior, and his unreliable narration creeps up on the reader. Category: Older Fiction. 2005, Atheneum/Seo, 165pp, 16.95. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 1: Outstanding, noteworthy in style, content, and/or illustration.

Cindy Dobrez (VOYA, December 2005 (Vol. 28, No. 5))
The way it looks is not the way it is. This opening line of Lynch's powerful but sure-to-be-controversial novel finds high school senior Keir Sarafian, a "good-guy," accused of date rape on graduation night. In effective, stylized prose where every word and element is a clue to the bigger picture-including a year-long game of RISK, the board game of conflict, control, and vulnerability-the chapters alternate between the aftermath of the "incident" and Keir's recounting of events leading to this night. Keir is the football team's kicker but fills in at cornerback one night, crippling an opposing player with a "perfect hit." He tells his sisters he did not learn any lesson; it was an accident so there was no lesson to learn. In fact, the act of violence earns him a long-awaited football scholarship. When his sisters do not come home for his graduation, an act Keir finds inexcusable, the reader begins to understand how unreliable the narrator is-and how troubled. His perception of every relationship and event is skewed. Keir believes himself to be good--not innocent, but good--repeatedly justifying his actions. Too many drinks, pills, and a long night in a limo with the girl he idolizes, Gigi Boudakian, leads to disaster. Gigi makes some poor choices after her Air Force boyfriend neglects her, but she clearly says no to Keir. Looking through the eyes of a rapist is uncomfortable, but this book is about more than date rape. Lynch's masterful exploration of the difference between perception and reality is fascinating. Teens will reread this short but complex story debating the issues of violence and responsibility. As Keir says, "it was never an issue of intent, but of intensity." VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2005, Ginee Seo Books/Atheneum/S & S, 176p., $16.95. Ages 12 to 18.