Sarah is the main character and the story is recounted from her perspective. She is sixteen (almost seventeen) and is described by the author as having dark hair and being slightly underweight. Sarah's life changes in the blink of an eye after an accident she has while swimming. She is accidently pushed to the bottom of the lake and gets tangled in the weeds at the bottom. Her friends save her but not before she stops breathing, and Sarah witnesses her friend Andy giving her body CPR. While this experience is traumatic enough, afterward Sarah noticed she has a "spirit shadow." She has become sensitive to the "other side." Though she tried to deal with her newfound awareness herself, when she mentions it to her friends they react very negatively, as do her parents. Their reactions humiliate Sarah, making her feel like a "weirdo." She decides to keep her experiences to herself, since sharing them with others provokes such strong and unsavory reactions from her friends and family. Like any teenager, Sarah is concerned with fitting in and does not want to be different. Her near-death experience sets her apart from the friends she has had since childhood, and even her best friend Marcie is uncomfortable around her.
