Jake is home after sustaining injuries during deployment. He's being lauded as a hero, but is struggling with what that really means. Jake still has six months left of deployment to finish after his rehab at Walter Reed. He's really thinking about not going back, but that would mean breaking the law. Not to mention, disappointing his grandfather, the General, and the town, who came out en masse to welcome home their hero. He's going to earn a silver star, but that is pretty hard to reconcile with all the things he's seen and done. Flashbacks intersperse with the present, as Jake tries to deal with all the pressures returning home brings forward.

One of the characters in this book is a female high school reporter who would like Jake to renounce his junior ROTC class from high school. She has some disheartening stats. Jake is able to see her point of view, but unwilling to deviate from the accepted narrative to publicly support her story. How he resolves his dilemma still has me thinking.

On a side note, something I learned as I was doing my FERPA training for school this year, is that recruiters can ask for and receive student names and addresses. I'm sure I've been told this before but it really stood out to me after reading this book. ( )

When Jake is welcomed home as a hero after getting injured during his military service, he has a hard time adjusting and questions whether he wants to finish serving his last six months. He has a strained relationship with his girlfriend, he has flashbacks to what he saw and did on duty, and he bears a lot of weight from the expectations of his military family. A little heavy handed with the message about recruiting kids into the military (but it wasn't one I disagreed with). Not coming from a military family or background, this was interesting for me to think about as I read. ( )