The World Without Us

December 22, 2014
Ever since Melody got drunk at a party and took a handful of Tylenol, she’s been stuck with the reputation of being suicidal. Melody resents her two best friends for spreading rumors about that night, so when new student Jeremy reaches out to her, the 16-year-old jumps at the chance to have a like-minded, empathetic friend. But Jeremy is obsessed with trying to contact his younger brother, Lucas, who drowned two years earlier, through lucid dreaming—or by taking his own life. Melody plays along with Jeremy’s suicide plans until she realizes he’s serious and she’s unable to stop him from jumping off a bridge. Jeremy survives and turns to religion; meanwhile, Melody is left alone with her guilt. Stevenson (Hummingbird Heart) supplements the main plot with a thread about prisoners on death row, juxtaposing the story’s suicide theme with questions about the ethics of execution by the state. These and other issues threaten to overwhelm the story at times, but readers will be left with plenty to ponder about vulnerability, understanding, and escaping one’s demons in order to fully embrace life. Ages 12–up.

January 1, 2015

Gr 7-10-In the opening scene of this problem novel about depression and suicide, 16-year-old Melody's friend Jeremy jumps off a bridge. In flashbacks and forward, Melody wrestles with her guilt, her complicity in encouraging Jeremy's darkness for its romantic nature, and her own fascination with death. The backdrop of autumnal Florida during a death row watch by Melody's activist anti-capital-punishment mother provides rich context for the teens' morbid curiosity, with a sweet counterpoint offered by Melody's bright eight-year-old babysitting charge and her fascination with black holes. Stevenson skillfully plots the frequent scene changes through different time periods, revealing just enough at just the right times, and making her protagonist's voice ring true as a smart, skeptical, white middle-class teen. No worries about a pat, simplistic ending either; these are characters who will continue to learn, grow, and change beyond the end of these concise pages. Not too intense or depressing for its subject matter, this will have most appeal to upper middle school and early high school readers who like serious topics, such as fans of Patricia McCormick and Sonya Sones.-Rhona Campbell, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2014
Jeremy is trying to talk Melody into jumping off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida at the opening of this look at both what motivates someone to suicide and how people cope with the aftermath of a failed attempt. Mel's first-person narration plunges readers into the action before flashing back to explore the excruciating pain that leads Jeremy to contemplate suicide. Cutting back and forth between past and present, Mel struggles with her guilt at not being able to talk him out of it and the agonizing possibility that she led him into thinking they could go together. They connected a few months earlier at a party, her nickname Death Wish (earned after a fumbled attempt to take too many Tylenols) making Jeremy feel he's found a fellow traveler. Mel may have thought they were joking about suicide, but Jeremy, suffering from survivor guilt after the death of his younger brother while he was in charge, is definitely not. In a related subplot, Mel's mother's activism against the death penalty and Mel's familiarity with the issues surrounding death row widen the book's thematic focus without falling into proselytizing. While readers learn early on that Jeremy has survived, they will find the ways each teen views and handles death to be compellingly presented. The dialogue sometimes sounds off, clearly written in the service of Stevenson's themes rather than character development. Dialogue bobbles aside, commendably on topic. (Fiction. 12-16)

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January 1, 2015
Grades 8-11 When Mel meets Jeremy for the first time, she feels as though he is a kindred soul. However, as she begins to learn more about him and his past, she is unsure of their relationship. Jeremy seems furtive, his thoughts are often dark, and she feels that his obsession with his brother's death is unhealthy. Jeremy says that it is easier to let go than to hang on, but he is hanging on to the guilt he has about his brother's drowning. Mel wants to hold on, but not at the risk of her own life. Stevenson explores the complex psychology of suicide and survivor's guilt through the lives of these realistic teens. There are no easy answers here, no miraculous recoveries. But there is hope. Striving readers will appreciate this high/low book that deals sensitively with a tough issue.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)