In her first effort for a teenage audience, Silver Birch nominee Natale Ghent has produced a gripping story of life and death with a twisted ending worthy of The Sixth Sense.
Sarah Wagner's beloved brother John has recently died from cancer, and the high school senior is left behind to deal with his absence. Sarah is falling apart. She suffers from blinding headaches, which she treats with Aspirin and codeine. She has pushed away nearly all of her friends, leaving only Donna, the outcast, and Peter, the boy who would like to be more than a friend.
On the surface, the book appears to be another typical teen problem novel - girl in trouble, an absent mother (referred to as the "ice queen") and a relationship with Michael, a mysterious boy, who is himself shrouded in ambiguity. To add to her difficulties, she is haunted by the ghost of her brother, whose presence is signaled by the "odor of earth and rain."
There is however, much more to the novel than what is seen on the surface, and a careful reader will be rewarded for their scrutiny. Death is everywhere in the novel. Every image and experience is significant, right down to Michael's last name (Mort - the French word for death). Sarah's impressions of the hospital are recounted in italic print, but the author carefully avoids naming the patient, leaving the reader to presume his/her identity. Everything around Sarah is dark and cold, and she is strangely drawn to the cemetery.
Part mystery, part horror novel and part human drama, this is a gritty and powerful novel that will draw its readers in and take them on a thrilling ride right through to the amazing climax.
Rachel Steen