An emotional novel about grief and the enduring power of love after death.
A teenager dies and discovers a new world on the other side in Mebane’s debut novel.
Nineteen-year-old Emma Mebane is a bubbly, well-liked college student from a close-knit Chicago-area family. She’s home from school for the summer when the unthinkable happens: She dies suddenly in her sleep. Her friends, family and community are left in a state of shock—how will they go on without her? Emma, however, can see all these events unfolding. After she awakens with her late Aunt Patsy, Grandpa and other loved ones in a place that she calls “After,” she finds that she can invisibly observe and move among her mourning family members. In the weeks following her death, Emma must learn how to balance her “before” life with her afterlife and learn how to tell her family that she is indeed OK in her world while still allowing them to move on in theirs. With help from her late relatives and other old and new friends, Emma learns that love doesn’t end when life does but in fact grows stronger. This book was inspired by the story of Mebane’s real-life daughter, also named Emma. It’s truly a labor of love, and readers can easily imagine Emma’s vivacious love of life. The novel, however, is not without flaws, as the structure can be a bit confusing. For example, each chapter is headed by a different character, a device which muddles the plotline; a more straightforward structure would likely have served the book better. The work also contains many long, hard-to-follow sections of italicized thoughts, mostly Emma’s. Overall, however, the characters are well fleshed out, and each family member offers a different perspective on the process of mourning. It’s shown to be a distinctive experience for every individual, but the stirring moral of each journey remains the same: It will all be OK.
An emotional novel about grief and the enduring power of love after death.Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0985760809
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Starshine Galaxy
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A little too much going on, but still manages to be tight and sharp-witted.
Two private investigators take on a homicidal illusionist, but what the detectives don’t know about each other is just as dangerous as the magician’s man-eating tigers.
After solving one of the most complicated and high-profile murders in Hollywood history, ex-cops Maureen O’Brien and Blake Ervansky set out to turn good press into big money for their new detective agency. They are soon approached by Cerise Marginata, an aging pop star whose husband, Josef Lucasz, was just mauled by one of the Bengal tigers he performed with nightly in a Las Vegas magic show. Cerise believes the attack was orchestrated by the other half of Josef’s act, his “mentor,” Landon Wilke, who has more reasons than just professional jealousy to want his partner dead. But if trying to outwit a master of misdirection’s circuitous murder plot wasn’t hard enough, Maureen’s dubious past as a CIA assassin also rears its ugly head, threatening to leave Blake and the agency out in the cold. Kelly (Winged, 2011, etc.) and Lyons (Murder in One Take, 2012) return to their distinctive brand of mystery starring the LA-based duo who combine traditional investigation with the Hollywood perspective of Maureen’s TV-producer father. Darker than its predecessor, this installment doesn’t sacrifice the humor or turns of phrase that were the hallmarks of the first. Rather, those things appear here again, tighter and more polished, and the novel as a whole boasts a deftness with language that outpaces its rather pulpy story. Those unfamiliar with the first book can easily pick up this one, as the authors offer succinct recaps, and there’s plenty of insight into almost all of the characters, recurring and not, with point-of-view shifts utilized in effective though jarring ways. This entry in the series even feels too far removed at times, as much of the bonding between Blake and Maureen seems (at least initially) ignored. That aside, the characters fall easily into place with each other and the overly complex plot; the biggest criticism to be leveled is that the book tries to do too much. The revelations about Maureen’s CIA past, along with how her father ties in, could have easily been a novel unto itself, but instead, it shares an already crowded focus with an equally sensationalistic tale of killer stage tigers.
A little too much going on, but still manages to be tight and sharp-witted.Pub Date: April 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615645346
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flight Risk Books
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A darkly sweet paranormal fairy tale about rediscovering life after death.
A young girl adjusts to big life changes in Amie Borst and Bethanie Borst’s (Snow Fright, 2016, etc.) charming middle-grade novel with images by debut illustrator Hercka.
Middle school can be rough, but 12-year-old Cindy is having a particularly difficult time. Before her witch mother dies, she casts a spell on her daughter that causes her to transform into a skeleton every evening at sundown. Her father is horrified by his daughter’s nighttime appearance, and Cindy feels more alone than ever—until she discovers the perks of her nightly metamorphosis. With the help of a fairy godmother and a few other supernatural creatures, Cindy realizes she can journey into the Underworld and visit her mom while the surface world slumbers. Her nightly excursions give her solace, especially after her father brings home a new wife and her two unpleasant daughters. Soon, Cindy’s annoyance with her stepmother and her bizarre chore lists outweighs her grief. She also has a crush on Ethan McCallister, a boy at school who might be interested in her, as well. With the middle school dance coming up, Cindy finds herself torn between the land of the living and the world of the dead. The author’s supernatural twist on a classic fairy tale is unexpected and enjoyable. Hercka’s accompanying illustrations evoke filmmaker Tim Burton’s work, such as in The Nightmare Before Christmas. Cindy is a chatty and likable narrator who frequently provides narrative asides (under “Time Out!” captions) that will tickle young readers’ funny bones. Yet underneath the humor and the camp, the story has heart. It poignantly presents a family’s struggle to adjust to the passing of a loved one, and it offers subtle insights into parenting, presented from a middle school perspective: “How do parents always know where we are, even when we don’t want them to?”
A darkly sweet paranormal fairy tale about rediscovering life after death.Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-948882-01-9
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Mystery Goose Press
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
