Something Like Faith

Small town. Unrequited love. Unhinged father. Runaway sister, presumed dead. Basketball. Best friend. Best friend’s car. Best friend’s girlfriend. Racism. Custodian. Life makes no sense. God makes no sense. Paxton has no one to explain either. His sister, Amethyst, ran away when he was nine, leaving a note promising to find him when he goes to college and swearing him to secrecy. He is failing spectacularly at becoming a basketball star and succeeding, narrowly, at surviving his emotionally fractured parents. He needs to escape his minefield home life as well as the claustrophobia and gossip of a town that knows his business better than he does—without knowing him at all. He's applying to Princeton and UCLA but can't afford junior college. After four years, he's now setting the stage for potentially his greatest humiliation: asking out Guinevere—brilliant, musical prodigy, gorgeous, long-time friend.Jeff, the one person who has encouraged Paxton with Guinevere, begins pursuing Emily, who lives on a Reservation, and Paxton's not racist—no, really—it's just that Emily is psycho, even by his family's standards. But Emily also knows something about Amethyst...maybe.Is escape possible? What happens if a hopeless cause isn’t? Can a screwed-up guy handle success without sabotaging it? Or are lofty goals just a means of splattering from greater heights?