Do you think Natalie was right to have called the police on Lynn and Jake? Do you think it was fair that they in turn blamed her for Carlos’s death and being sent to prison?

Yes, she was right for calling the police. She was trying to help Lynn. They were not fair in blaming her for Carlos’s death and being sent to prison.

I think that some of her motivations were petty, but overall it was the right thing to do and her siblings were absolutely ridiculous to blame her for what came about as the result of their own poor decisions.

Yes, she needed to call the police or help asap. Her brother & sister were doing heavy drugs and she was young and upset when she walked in snd saw what was going on. Carlos did shoot up all of heroin as soon as he heard that the police were there but I think he would have done it even if the police weren’t there! Getting sent to prison was harsh especially for young adults but they no longer used drugs.

She was absolutely right to call the cops. She was only 18! They should have been begging her for forgiveness in my opinion. I agree that the friend deliberately overdosing at that moment seemed confusing.

I think the story doesn’t ring true, prison is not a place to go and get clean, there’s plenty of drugs on the inside if someone has a problem with drugs and wants to use. Natalie states that her brother had been emaciated for a while prior to the incident, which eludes to the fact that he was likely well into his addiction already. In order to get clean and stay that way, an important step is taking responsibility. While Jake may have taken responsibility for purchasing the drugs, it sounds as though neither he nor his sister ever took… Read more »

So first responders were already on their way yet there was no hope for the poor guy who was overdosing? While technically plausible, it feels more like the author decided this person needed to die so the siblings go to jail and the main character is blamed for eternity. What’s most unbelievable is how NO ONE in any character’s life has recognized that calling 911 likely saved the lives of the siblings. It appears they were headed down a very dark path and this very likely straightened them out before they reached a point of no return. How did Natalie… Read more »

Natalie was 18 at the time of the event. A teenager coming home and finding her older siblings and friend with heroin laid out on the table. It was Carlos’ choice to inject himself with a lethal dose instead of leaving or facing the cops. Natalie had to carry the weight of guilt with her for many years. The guilt of accidentally sending her siblings to jail. Was she in the wrong for calling the cops? Absolutely not. I would have done the same thing in her shoes. She saw her sister bleeding from the head, hard drugs were on… Read more »

She probably stopped a far worse outcome from happening to her siblings. Gave them a chance to turn things around. I know people in recovery that have said in retrospect jail was the best thing to happen to them.

While I believe her siblings needed to acknowledge that Natalie did the right thing calling the police all those years ago, there is still a learning moment for Natalie to see what other actions could she have taken. She continued throughout the story to take quick actions without thinking about all of the outcomes. It is a trait she needed to focus on and redevelop.

Was this book a YA book?

The book really just dealt with Natalie’s guilt feeling that she was responsible for her siblings’ incarceration. Her siblings didn’t really absolve her of her guilt. Nor did her siblings acknowledge that Natalie’s calling 911 may have saved their lives and Carlos may have died of an overdose anyway. There were so many things the book left unaddressed including the mother’s grief and absence. Perhaps it was a literary choice to focus on the story from Natalie’s perspective so the book wasn’t too long.

At 18, with her sister hurt and being fearful, no adults available to intervene, and drug overdosing, she really had to even if she did do it out of spite. Her concern was real.

This premise of the book never made sense to me, and the continued references to everything being Natalie’s fault just really annoyed me. How the siblings or her mom believed that, and continued to believe it for all these years, makes them seem like terrible people. And then people in the siblings’ lives knew it and thought she was a monster because of it (Jake’s coworkers). And Buck, who seemed reasonable and kind, never once reached out to her out of concern? And the brief mention of an insight from therapy wasn’t strong enough to get Natalie to stop taking… Read more »

I didn’t take her actions as calling the police “on” her siblings. I assumed she called because of Lynn’s injuries.

The entire incident was a big mess. Carlos literally overdosed because the police were called. Was he afraid that the police would take the drugs? So instead he killed himself. Perhaps prison saved Lynn and Jake from themselves. They were heading down a path of destruction.

Like the others who responded to this question, I think Natalie was right to call 911. It’s not like they were smoking cannabis-they were shooting heroin and someone was dying, while her sister bashed her head. Things were out of control. I wished that Lynn and Jake had come to the realization that Natalie’s actions probably saved their lives and a world of hurt. Continuing down the path toward drug addiction was destructive and suicidal. That doesn’t mean that I support the criminal justice apparatus with their war on drugs that was characteristic of the criminal justice system in the… Read more »

These older siblings were supposed to be acting, functionally, in loco parentis for Natalie — or at least Jake was. Could they not see how irresponsible it was to treat Natalie this way? As an 18 year old, she’s legally an adult but she absolutely needs parenting. And to alienate her for trying to take care of a basic safety need?? And her mom thinking it was okay to send her off and tell her to never come back, and expect that Natalie would initiate contact at some point?? It’s absolutely fine to have emotionally immature characters in a book,… Read more »

Given that Lynn’s head was bleeding badly I think it was the right move to call the police. Lynn could be seriously injured. The fact that Carlos decided to inject an extremely large dose because of that is not Natalie’s fault. It is also possible that had she not called the police Carlos would have lived. But given how much drugs they were doing, Jake and Lynn were not heading in a good direction and they could have been the ones to die.