Gwen, Mickey, Tim, Sean and Go-Go grew up together in a small town outside Baltimore in the 70’s. Nobody would have expected any of them to be friends. The boys were all brothers so they didn’t have a choice but the five of them together was an odd mix that people didn’t understand. Mickey called them the five points on a star. They were drawn together by the woods that surround their town and that is what eventually drives them apart as well. They will be forever linked to each other by what happened in those woods during a hurricane.

The group is reunited years later when Go-Go dies suddenly. Gwen is back in town caring for her father who has had an accident when she runs into one of Go-Go’s brothers who breaks the news. She goes to the services despite her own situation with her father and her own troubles with her husband. Seeing the group again brings back all of the memories from so long ago. All of them have tried to bury what happened that night but it is impossible to act like nothing happened when they’re all back together.

The book moves back and forth from present day to the late 70’s and early 80’s when they were all inseparable. We get to see each character change from before the incident to present day. We see how the incident has shaped who they are today and affected their relationships with others. We also get the perspective of each of the parents who were also involved in what happened in the woods when the children came across an abandoned house and the man who lives in it. The parents made choices that are still affecting people to this day.

Lippman takes a hard look at how the actions of each person has affected all of the others. Each of them thinks they know exactly what happened that night and as they spend more time with each other they realize they have no idea what happened but they let what they thought happened shape their lives.

Every aspect of their lives has been impacted by the decisions they made that night. Their innocence was lost and none of them were the same. They saw each other in ways they hadn’t before and they distanced themselves. Some of them were more driven to leave their town and not come back. Others found themselves making poor decisions with their personal relationships. They no longer saw their parents the same way as before. None of them ever mentioned it but it’s there just under the surface.

Lippman does a terrific job focusing on the psychological make-up of the group. How their dynamics played an integral part in what happened. The incident itself is really not the main focus but rather the how the aftermath shaped each person’s life. Each thought they knew exactly what must have happened that night but each one was holding just enough back to change everything for everyone.

© 2012 Amy Ridley

Amy Ridley received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Boston University