First, let me admit that I have been known to tear up at McDonald's commercials. Unfortunately, it is more about button-pushing than about real character development or great narrative.
Events take a turn for the unrelentingly devastating.
Millie's seemingly unfeeling mother refuses to let her visit Josh's grave. Millie's best friend Tiffany abandons her, and no one else at school will talk to her. And the only girl who seems inclined to befriend Millie goes in for wild parties and wants to push Millie in the same direction. In short, Millie's life spirals downhill, and to make matters worse, the boy she has a crush on seems to like the cruelest of all the girls in Millie's class. All of this misery takes nine-tenths of the book to unfold.