GRIEF IN THE FOURTH DIMENSION

In the afterlife, two teenagers connect and search for answers following their deaths.

In life at Winterton High School, Kenny Zhou and Caroline Davison hardly interacted, but after each dies unexpectedly, they find themselves together in a mysterious white room with a television screen that shows them the ones they left behind. Kenny, a science whiz whose closest friend was loyal fellow Science Olympian Iris Mutisya, was the son of Chinese immigrant parents who owned a restaurant that’s now on the brink of bankruptcy. Kenny and Iris, who’s Black, stood out in their overwhelmingly white school. Popular Caroline, who’s white, left behind her high-status parents, younger brother, and boyfriend. She doesn’t remember her death and has trouble accepting it. As they watch their loved ones mourn while also forming new connections with one another, Caroline and Kenny build their own tentative bond with each other. But as love, memory, and grief play out in the search for healing, the fragile trust among everyone is tested. Yu addresses complicated, uncomfortable themes around race, privilege, and power, though at times the portrayal of some characters, such as Caroline’s mother, feels lacking in nuance. But the conceit is a perennially popular one, the plot is absorbing, and the measured tone is effective.

A quietly moving tale that asks how privilege might affect the search for closure in the wake of tragedy.