Boy in Box — Christopher R. Michael

[Nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for YA Fiction] After a double murder shakes a suburban town, a boy's life becomes the center of a chain-reaction of events that affects everyone around him. Luther McRae, an introverted family product of a busy mother, an overworked father and an autistic sister keeps the secrets of his preteen angst written down on scraps of paper and locked away in a box. That is, until a new girl arrives in town like a whirlwind to break down his walls and invade his guarded, emotional turf. Boy in Box is a story about growing up and finding identity amid the chaos and confusion of puberty and the anxiety of entering into a stressful adult world while questioning whether everything happens for a reason.