When a book mentions a major character death on the first page, it kind of takes away some of the shock you feel when you actually turn the page and read about said character dying. At first you wonder how it is, they're going to die (Is it suicide? An accident? Cancer?), but by the time the story comes to an end, you get hit with the shock of the death, as if it hadn't been a major part of the first half of the book. You, too, experience a false feeling of security and safety in the arms of young first love, held tight by naïveté, hope. Lenz manages to capture all of these emotions and dreams so well, not just in Christian, but in us readers as well. Nonetheless, I did not regret living through a second first love via this book.