FREEZE FRAME

Ayarbe’s debut explores the ramifications of killing your best friend. Movie buff Kyle can’t remember exactly what happened in the shed with the gun. Was it an accident or did he really murder Jason after a year of strained friendship? Despite Kyle’s doubts, his love for Jason makes it clear that the death was accidental; Kyle scripts the scene from different directorial perspectives in an attempt to remember. Clunky dialogue and Kyle’s endless worry that he murdered Jason detract from the touchingly compelling subplot in which Jason’s eight-year-old brother, who idolizes both boys, is overwhelmed by sorrow and confusion. Fitting for a novel so concerned with cinema, most secondary characters hail from central casting: the wise, mysterious school librarian, the balding biker parole officer, the well-meaning parents who just can’t get a handle on their son. A satisfying and truly moving final third alleviates some of the flaws, but ideally, this novel would have focused more on the journey to the other side of grief and guilt and spent less time in that frozen first scene. (Fiction. 12 & up)