Knowing you have five days to live can be both a blessing and a burden. It brings with it sweet and sheer liberation, yet also the responsibility of tying up loose ends. This poignant yet bitterly hilarious novel about the dilemma of life vs. death marks the stunning debut of a provocative young voice in modern fiction: "Wilting," This is the story of what it's like to grow up in Suburbia, USA. Riddled with satire and pungent sarcasm, Ben's journal is unique and bitterly truthful, hilarious at times, heartbreaking at others. Unsure of his purpose in life and whether life is worth living at all, Ben embarks on a weeklong emotional journey to grasp conclusion in the last hours of his life. To have closure in his father's death, in his mother's affair, in his sister's future, Ben must face the reality that what is normal isn't always what is right and what seems OK can't always be taken at face value. Through Ben, debut author J. R. Sherwood, 16, has fashioned a groundbreaking and powerful story about discovery, hope, and the ever slim possibility that life does have a purpose, in a novel that will take you to the sweet and sophisticated suburbs, to days of high school boredom, to cliques and social status, and to the trials and tribulations of growing up.