Dead River

March 1, 2013
While most people who visit the Dead River hear the white noise of rushing water, 17-year-old Kiandra Levesque hears the voices of people the river has claimed. She's been kept away from water ever since her mother committed suicide by walking into the Delaware River 10 years earlier. Angry at this abandonment, she wants to prove to herself that she has left her mother behind, so she sneaks away with her boyfriend for a camping and rafting trip in rural Maine. When she encounters the spirit of a boy killed in the 1930s, Kia learns that she has magical powers and that she might be able to see her mother again--but that she must cross the river from life to death to do so. Balog starts her story in media res, allowing narrator Kiandra to introduce herself slowly, by revealing her past. There's a trick to keeping the narrator mostly unnamed and identified only by fears for the first several pages, and unfortunately, the author doesn't quite carry it off. Despite her heavy and often articulated misery, Kiandra comes across as a shallow character: clear, fast-moving and trickling downstream before making an impact. The inevitable love triangle feels forced, and the resolution stretches the bounds of the narrative rules, but at least it assures there's no loose threads for a sequel. The secondary characters are oxbow lakes, extraneous pieces cut off from the main flow and leading nowhere. Not the refreshing plunge it would like to be. (Paranormal thriller. 12 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2013

Gr 7 Up-Kiandra Levesque's father has kept her away from bodies of water ever since her mother killed herself in the river near their New Jersey home. Now living in Maine, Ki, 17, skips prom to go on a white-water-rafting adventure with her boyfriend, her cousin, and an annoying travel companion. As her group tells ghost stories, the teen has visions of the deaths of the individuals in the legends. She also begins seeing the spirits of those who died in bodies of water, and as she gets closer to the river, she hears voices. During her first journey on the Dead River, she is pulled out of the raft by something supernatural and is saved by Trey, a ghost from one of the stories. Ki, it turns out, is a "Mistress of the Waters" and has great magical powers. Trey warns her to leave the river, but she stays when another ghost, Jack, tempts her with seeing her mother again. Sticking around and kissing Jack costs Ki her life. Her mother is able to bring her back from the dead, but only at a great sacrifice of her own powers. Ki then uses her abilities to return Trey to the living as a romance between them sparks. Balog tells a unique story providing supernatural romance fans with plenty of adventure, paranormal mystique, and angst.-Adrienne L. Strock, Chicago Public Library

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.