CHASING BROOKLYN

New Year’s Day breaks hard for Brooklyn as she faces the one-year anniversary of the car accident that killed her boyfriend Lucca; across town, Nico, Lucca’s younger brother, also mourns. Rocked hard by this grim anniversary, both teens are further aggrieved to learn that on this same day their friend Gabe, the driver of the car, has committed suicide. Following Gabe’s death, Brooklyn and Nico are drawn together, not by familiarity but instead by supernatural visitations from the two deceased boys, who seem determined that Brooklyn and Nico must continue to live. Written as a novel in verse, the text alternates between Brooklyn’s and Nico’s voices and thoughts, dreams and fears, creating an intimate and raw snapshot of their evolving relationship. Capitalizing on the elasticity of the form, Schroeder masterfully creates a parallel structure within the text, the energy and emotion of each scene heightening its overall drama, underscoring the sorrow and, above all, strengthening its final message of hope. (Fiction. YA)