AIMEE

First-novelist Miller creates an intense psychological drama narrated by a troubled teen recently acquitted of murder charges. The question "Did Zoe really help best friend Aimee commit suicide?" hangs precariously between the lines of Zoe's journal, where (according to her psychologist) she is to write about her past, "what you felt, what you thought, what was important to you." Zoe pointedly avoids discussing the fateful night of Aimee's death, but she candidly describes her present emotions. She openly expresses her scorn for therapists, her resentment of her mother, her longing to see old friends (whom she is forbidden to contact) and her avoidance of a girl at her new school (the girl flirts with death the same way Aimee did). Tension mounts as Zoe edges ever closer to the truth about Aimee's death, but details remain below the surface until the cathartic climax, when Zoe finally recaps the horrific chain of events and must determine whether or not the tragedy could have been prevented. While the premise involves extremes of behavior, readers will readily recognize the feelings and conflicts that fuel this engrossing novel. Investigating the tensions between teens and the adults in their lives, the author raises hard-hitting questions that resound all the more powerfully for her refusal to simplify the answers. Ages 14-up. (May)