The healing time of hickeys

the long version

Enter the diary of sixteen-year-old Haley, who is in her last year of high school (The Greatest Year of My Life, or TGYML). Haley likes to think she's just a normal girl, plagued with all the normal doubts of a too-smart-for-her-own-good, slightly hypochondriac, hickey-prone teenager. But partway through the year, disaster strikes: Haley comes down with chickenpox; her best friend Jules won't speak to her; the object of her affections, a boy named J.T., won't even look at her; and worst of all, her harmless hippie Dad is in some mysterious trouble with the law. In desperation, Haley turns to the Ouija board and tries to communicate with the Other Side, but this leads to a further, unexpected complication: Why does the dead boy she channels seem more attractive than the real boy who wants to spend time with her? The Healing Time of Hickeys takes the reader on a dizzying and wryly funny journey to discover the answer to this question, and several more that Haley thinks she keeps hidden from everyone.