Pitch-perfect YA novella which, for once seemed to manage to be suitable for a mature teen, while offering something worthwhile for an adult reader. (Me, that would be me.)
Williams has done a clever, artful, beautifully written job of depicting the Hell that is high school -- well, as this is a YA book, and we have to watch our language, perhaps not the H-word, but definitely Purgatory or Limbo -- 17-year old Paige, the protagonist, is dead, the victim of a recent stupid, pointless accidental fall from the school roof. She joins two other former students who came to sticky ends on school grounds, in addition to the very confused ghosts of every frog that has ever been done to death in the school's biology classes. (A wonderful, hilarious touch, which Williams plays to great effect.)
Williams' has carefully thought through her concept: there are rules, and the three dead teens (and the frogs) must abide by them. As spelled out in the blurb on the cover, Paige discovers a work-around that allows her to communicate, sort of, with the living-- but it takes thought, and some frustration to achieve. In Williams' version of the Afterlife, like Life itself (and, come to think of it, high school) you have to know the rules if you're going to try to break them.
Williams' tone is flawless -- the voice of a smart, snarky teen, who is having to come to terms with her heartbreakingly abbreviated life, the mistakes she made, and all the things she's never going to get a chance to do. Watching friends -- and frenemies -- get on with their very living lives. It made me laugh out loud. And it moved me to tears.
And just at a point when you might start thinking, well, this is nice, but is it going to go anywhere -- it starts to go somewhere, very neatly and economically. And at the end, mysteries are solved, truths are faced ... to say anymore would be spoiling something that is relatively slight, but definitively worth reading.
Sorry, I'm not going to part with this one -- I'm saving it for my granddaughter, and I look forward to the day when I can share it with her.
Williams has done a clever, artful, beautifully written job of depicting the Hell that is high school -- well, as this is a YA book, and we have to watch our language, perhaps not the H-word, but definitely Purgatory or Limbo -- 17-year old Paige, the protagonist, is dead, the victim of a recent stupid, pointless accidental fall from the school roof. She joins two other former students who came to sticky ends on school grounds, in addition to the very confused ghosts of every frog that has ever been done to death in the school's biology classes. (A wonderful, hilarious touch, which Williams plays to great effect.)
Williams' has carefully thought through her concept: there are rules, and the three dead teens (and the frogs) must abide by them. As spelled out in the blurb on the cover, Paige discovers a work-around that allows her to communicate, sort of, with the living-- but it takes thought, and some frustration to achieve. In Williams' version of the Afterlife, like Life itself (and, come to think of it, high school) you have to know the rules if you're going to try to break them.
Williams' tone is flawless -- the voice of a smart, snarky teen, who is having to come to terms with her heartbreakingly abbreviated life, the mistakes she made, and all the things she's never going to get a chance to do. Watching friends -- and frenemies -- get on with their very living lives. It made me laugh out loud. And it moved me to tears.
And just at a point when you might start thinking, well, this is nice, but is it going to go anywhere -- it starts to go somewhere, very neatly and economically. And at the end, mysteries are solved, truths are faced ... to say anymore would be spoiling something that is relatively slight, but definitively worth reading.
Sorry, I'm not going to part with this one -- I'm saving it for my granddaughter, and I look forward to the day when I can share it with her.
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