A page-turning mystery with a spot-on emotional core.
A teen living her second life is haunted by having killed someone in her first.
Fifteen-year-old Ana was born in the year 2000 to Rachel, who loves her deeply. But Rachel “doesn’t feel like Mum” to Ana, because Ana’s not really Ana: she’d been born before, in 1972, and died at age 22. She used to be—and still feels like—a girl named Emma, and she pines for her original mum. A chance encounter with an old woman named Frances sends Ana spinning down a frantic path. When she was Emma, Ana killed a little girl—Frances’ daughter. Ana begins to visit Frances on the same street where Emma grew up, equally desperate to find clarity about the drowning and to avoid that clarity, because it’s all too painful and Frances is cold as ice. Ana’s sleepless due to fear and trauma, but she’s not hallucinating, and Bird includes no fantasy elements beyond the reincarnation. Tormented by memory scraps and powerful feelings still alive from her first childhood, Ana begins to put the pieces together, but full comprehension is impossible until Frances and Ana sit down with Emma’s parents. Ana’s first-person narration wraps heart-wrenching feelings—jealousy, yearning, grief, hatred—in plainspoken prose. The fateful night’s magnetic pull will have readers staying awake until the very end.
A page-turning mystery with a spot-on emotional core. (author’s note) (Mystery. 14 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-34886-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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