It was so frustrating, especially because, like -- throughout the book, Jim does things, and they're interesting things! He dates a local girl and wins the respect of the townspeople by punching out her asshole boyfriend, he picks up new hobbies like gardening and woodwork and does a really good job of them, he does an independent ghost research project and gets really stoked about learning how to source references and use microfilm, he starts writing emo poetry and it's admittedly not great poetry but nonetheless a gothic lit-mag phase is a pretty interesting development for a kid who used to be a football jock! I was actually feeling pretty good about Michaels for the amount of stuff Jim was managing to do and the ways he was developing, around Andrea's overprotectiveness! AND THEN, THIS.