My Beating Teenage Heart

August 1, 2011
Caught in limbo, 15-year-old Ashlyn's spirit hovers over a teenager she doesn't know. The reason she is connected to Breckon, bereft over the death of his seven-year-old sister, is a mystery at first, but Ashlyn senses that it is her mission to save him. Through alternating points of view, Martin (The Lighter Side of Life and Death) explores the woeful stories of both teenagers. Breckon, wracked with guilt, starts injuring himself and grows dependent on sleeping pills, while Ashlyn gradually recovers memories of her life, including some disturbing revelations late in the book. This novel, which may be too bleak for some readers, focuses more on Ashlyn and Breckon's regrets and yearning than on their healing; the characters' voices are distinct, but Ashlyn's feels more overdone than believable ("I miss the beat of my heart.... I miss being able to swing my hips to the pounding beat of the latest chart-topping dance hit"). The book's permeating sadness will likely be felt more sharply than both characters' redemption during the somewhat strained conclusion. Ages 14âup.

July 15, 2011

A teenage ghost seeks to help a grief-stricken living boy.

While Ashlyn Baptiste is hovering in the ether wondering why she can't remember life, Breckon Cody is sulking in his room, wondering why he wants to live. As Ashlyn invisibly engages with Breckon's life, she begins to recall snippets of her adolescence: orange juice, roast-beef sandwiches, a friend's betrayal of a devastating secret. She watches as Breckon begins to abuse sleeping pills, breaks off connections with his friends and starts injuring himself in attempts to avoid the pain and guilt he feels over his sister's accidental death. With her limited influence, Ashlyn tries to save Breckon, even as she wonders why no one was able to save her. Dividing the narrative between Ashlyn and Breckon, Martin brings the same exquisite writing style to this narrative as to her previous works (One Lonely Degree, 2009, etc.). However, overwrought emotions and too-familiar paranormal themes drag down the narrative. Breckon's moping reaches cartoonish levels quickly, and the revelation of Ashlyn's mystery is soap-opera–esque rather than emotionally meaningful. Martin's mastery at depicting real-life scenarios is tainted by the otherworldly element, a needless nod to an all-consuming trend.

Beats only with a dull pulse. (Paranormal romance. 14 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-When Ashlyn wakes up, she doesn't know who or where she is. She slowly comes to realize that not only is she dead, but she is also inexplicably bound to watch over Breckon, a teen whose younger sister has suddenly died. As Ashlyn tries to make sense of her connection to Breckon-she can't leave his side, not even to visit her family-she watches him succumb to depression from guilt over his sister's death, deliberately hurting himself and abusing drugs. Told in alternating chapters by Ashlyn and Breckon, the novel contrasts his disintegration with her growing awareness of the personal strength she never recognized she had while she was alive. Similar in tone to Jenny Downham's Before I Die (Random, 2007), but with a supernatural tinge not unlike Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall (HarperTeen, 2010), this novel is a somber but ultimately optimistic depiction of the grieving process. While both of the protagonists' responses to death motivate the central plot, the mystery of Ashlyn's connection to Breckon accelerates the pace. The answer proves almost disappointingly mundane. Nonetheless the reassuring ending contains just the right amount of hope.-Amy S. Pattee, Simmons College, Boston

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.