ALA Booklist (Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

McCormick, never one to shy away from heavy issues (self-mutilation in Cut, 2000; sexual slavery in Sold, 2006), now takes readers into the dark heart of wartime Iraq. Private Matt Duffy awakes in a hospital bed, suffering from a severe brain injury sustained during a confrontation with insurgents. His memory of the encounter is foggy, but the pieces that slowly settle in contradict the story told by his squadmate and friend, Justin. An Iraqi kid was killed, though no one seems to know why or by whom, and Matt gets the distinct feeling that the Army doesn't want to know. McCormick clearly evokes Matt's longing to return to his unit and his buddies and sets that against the psychological trauma of reentering the fray and coming to terms with a death for which he holds himself accountable. Gripping details of existence in a war zone bring this to life, and penetrating questions about duty and guilt drive it home. Pair this novel with Ghosts of War, reviewed on p.49, a teen soldier's account of his time in Iraq.

School Library Journal (Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Gr 7 Up-McCormick follows up her best-selling Sold (Hyperion, 2006) with a haunting look at the soldiers in Iraq. Matt Duffy is a private who escapes dying after nearly being hit by an RPG, but cannot remember what happened to him, has a hard time grasping new things, and desperately wants to get back to his squad. Most of the book is about Matt trying to recover from TBI, the soldiers he meets in the hospital and the physical and mental problems they face, and the discovery of what really happened that day he got shot. The characters are heart-wrenching, true, and realistic. The author's research into the war is obvious and brings an awareness to readers of the situation over there that they might not otherwise have. What the text lacks is a sense of the military action. While this is a worthy purchase, teens will get more out of it if they read Walter Dean Myers's Sunrise Over Fallujah (Scholastic, 2008) first. Richard Winters, Wasco High School, CA

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

A Baghdad firefight leaves Private Matt Duffy injured and two Iraqi civilians dead. Since Matt sustained a traumatic brain injury, what happened is a mystery. McCormick takes readers inside Matt's damaged mind as he tries to process the details. Did he pull the trigger? Is he a child killer? As with all the questions in this hard-hitting novel, the answers are complex and heartbreaking.

Kirkus Reviews

Injured, dazed and bewildered from combat, teenager Private Matt Duffy wakes up in the infirmary to receive the prized Purple Heart for his valor in Iraq. He suffers from severe traumatic brain injury, so his memories of his last patrol are broken and hazy at best: He remembers raising the barrel of his gun to the face of an Iraqi boy and his friend Wolf coming to his rescue. McCormick builds the plot subtly and carefully with rich, spare prose. At first readers will feel nearly as disoriented as Matt as he pieces together what happened, but his clarity slowly returns, and both Matt and readers are filled with unease and a sinking dread that he may have killed the boy who haunts his memories. The minor characters are drawn just as humanely as Matt; readers will come to love and respect each young soldier who visits him in the hospital. The author tenderly calculates the guilt and trepidation that infect Matt's mind, and when he returns to patrol, what he finds on the streets of Iraq will either make him or break him. (Fiction. YA)

Voice of Youth Advocates

Private Matt Duffy is awarded the Purple Heart during his service in Iraq, but as he recovers in a military hospital from a traumatic brain injury, he cannot remember exactly how he was injured or the events surrounding his injury. Memories come back to Matt in flashes, but they confuse him more than clarify. When Matt is asked to meet with senior officers about a complaint regarding the death of Ali, a young Iraqi boy Matt befriended, Matt begins to question how Ali died and who killed him. Was Matt at fault? Did Justin, his best friend in Iraq, kill an innocent boy? Matt is filled with doubts, and he attempts to piece together the incident by talking to the militaryÆs ôevaluator,ö a priest, and a fellow patient who suffers from his own demons, while at the same time trying to maintain ties with his family and girlfriend back home. Nothing really becomes clear until Matt returns to the field and someone else dies. McCormick does an excellent job in tying the confusion of battle in urban Iraq to the bewilderment a young private feels as he desperately tries to understand what happened to him with a brain that will not cooperate. Where this book fails is by not giving much consideration from the Iraqi perspective, so readers do not get a clear view of all players involved. Nevertheless the author does an excellent job of putting the reader into the shoes of a young American soldier and how he copes with the fog of war.ùNancy Pierce.

Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

In this suspenseful psychological thriller, 18-year-old Matt Duffy, a private with memory problems following a traumatic brain injury, receives the Purple Heart in Iraq and gradually unravels the contradictory events that led to the honor. McCormick (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Sold) sharply draws the culture of the Green Zone hospital, the camaraderie of the enlisted men and (via phone calls and letters) the gulf between life at home versus on the front. Friendship, bravado and juvenile antics counteract the soldiers' guilt, paranoia and unease around Iraqis (“ 'Enemy' was the official term. 'Insurgents' was okay, too. Everybody called them hajis, though”). Strong characters heighten the drama, especially likable Matt, but also the sympathetic hospital psychiatrist who balances complicated allegiances and legal obligations, and flinty Charlene, the sole female member of Matt's squad. As Matt remembers more and more, tension builds and he becomes confused about interpretations of the truth (and when to reveal them) within the chain of command. McCormick raises moral questions without judgment and will have readers examining not only this conflict but the nature of heroism and war. Ages 12–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)