AGAIN BEHOLD THE STARS

In Latimer’s YA fantasy novel, a teenager gets the chance at a new life inside her favorite book after her untimely death.

Rigby Rhymes is a 17-year-old girl with Brugada syndrome, a heart condition that forces her to spend much of her time in the hospital. When heart failure leads to her death, she finds herself in the presence of two angels who offer her a deal: Save the life of Wick, the antagonist of her favorite novel, Chance Golden and the Battle of Thornwell, and she’ll be given the opportunity to live out a second life between its pages. Wick, upon learning that he’s a fictional character whose death is preordained, rips Rigby’s book in two, stopping time in the novel’s world and attracting the ire of the Seven Deadly Sins, powerful Vices bent on wiping his world from existence. Rigby, Wick, and Chance Golden, the cocky protagonist of Thornwell, must go on a quest to repair the story, vanquish the Vices, and save the world, despite seemingly impossible odds, all while under the watchful eye of the witty, self-aware Narrator. Latimer’s story is compulsively readable and endlessly unexpected. The Christian elements, such as the inclusion of angels and the seven deadly sins, aren’t particularly subtle, but the characters’ real struggles make them feel richer and keep the book from feeling like a stuffy morality play. Themes of self-sacrifice, forgiveness, and growth make the story deeply affecting, such as when the Narrator says, “Some sorrows can’t be avoided. But maybe avoiding them is not the point. Maybe, just maybe, sorrow does not always mean The End.” The story sticks an ending that feels both impossible and inevitable, with character arcs strong enough to earn the novel a permanent place on the family bookshelf.

A heartfelt adventure that will leave readers hungry for more.