LOST ON THE EDGE OF ETERNITY

A supportive guidance counselor tries to help a small town’s ghost population in this novel.

Mr. Fellars is the beloved guidance counselor of Brownville High, a school in a small, working-class mill town. Despite dealing with some disciplinary problems at the school, Mr. Fellars is known for really listening to students. So it’s no surprise that when Randy Galphin’s ghost starts looking for advice, he shows up in Mr. Fellars’ office, just as he used to when he was a student at Brownville High. Though Randy was never someone to talk about his feelings while he was alive, as a spirit, he’s terrified to cross over. He’s been dead a number of years and is only now coming face to face with this fear because there are changes coming to Brownville. The mill is shutting down, and sadly, Brownville High is closing. This means Randy has until the end of the year to come to terms with his death. And Randy is not the only one. There is a host of died-too-young Brownville High students and town residents who have remained ghosts and must now learn to cross over. Deciding to aid these spirits, Mr. Fellars becomes a ghost guidance counselor. This ambitious novel offers not just one ghost story, but lots of them. Focusing on the lives and deaths of multiple characters, Floyd skillfully shows how much Mr. Fellars cares about these students while highlighting the tales of working-class families. Although the story is told from Mr. Fellars’ perspective, the narration often reads like third-person exposition as the counselor recites what he learns. Still, the ghosts themselves are engaging and also quite corporeal. The author delivers character descriptions that often help ground the tale. At one point, Randy asserts: “I could pull up my hair and show you the exit wound where the bullet came out the back of my head. It’s stuffed with mortician’s wax.” The fact that the apparitions are thoroughly believable helps offset a puzzling facet. It never quite makes sense that the spirits have to cross over when the school closes. But readers who don’t dwell on that matter will find this book an enjoyable read.

A refreshing ghost story delivering more psychology and good will than horror.