Kirkus Reviews QR Code
BEING DEAD by Vivian Vande Velde

BEING DEAD

by Vivian Vande Velde

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-216320-4
Publisher: Harcourt

Dead but not quite gone, specters in these seven stories rise up to harry the living, meet lovers, take care of unfinished business, or some combination thereof. There are no duds here: a harsh widower’s recently buried wife returns to dance him into her grave; a young woman with brain cancer falls in love with a man over 200 years dead; “Drop By Drop” a hit-and-run victim drives a seemingly innocent teenager into an anguished confession. “The Ghost” is a cleverly written tale with a surprise narrator, and in the title story, a Depression Era newsboy killed by a jumper resists the Voice (“Sort of like Lowell Thomas, only not so full of himself”), calling him to eternal bliss until he sees his earnings conveyed to his mother. Here, veteran short-story writer Vande Velde (Alison, Who Went Away, p. 266, etc.) again chills, charms, moves, and startles with her customary effectiveness. (Short stories. 10-13)