Never Ending

January 20, 2014
Fifteen-year-old Siobhan, who goes by Shiv, feels responsible for her brother Declan’s death during what started out as a blissful family vacation in Greece. Though no one else believes that Declan’s death is Shiv’s fault, she feels the need to be held accountable. When Bedfyrd’s story opens, she is being checked into the Korsakoff Clinic, an unconventional therapeutic institution for people who have suffered “traumatic bereavement.” Shiv and a handful of teenage residents submit to alternative therapies designed to help them understand the losses that have brought them to the clinic. Bedford (Flip) narrates in third-person, shifting between Shiv’s present-day interactions and recovery and her memories of her family’s time in Greece, during which romance, jealousy, and sibling antagonism helped propel the unfolding tragedy. The author does a lovely job of highlighting the in-jokes, good-natured ribbing, and high-running emotions of a family on vacation together (making Declan’s death feel all the more real), and he draws out the mystery behind what actually happened to Declan, creating a tension that will keep readers curious until the final page. Ages 14–up. Agent: Tina Wexler, ICM.

Starred review from January 15, 2014
An English teen can't stop blaming herself for her brother's death. Thanks to the headlines, all of Europe knows what happened to 15-year-old Shiv's brother one fateful night in Kyritos, Greece. Since then, she's been experiencing PTSD-like symptoms that put her into rages she can't remember and send illusions of her brother creeping across her vision. The two-pronged narrative shifts between the fateful family vacation in Greece and Shiv's inpatient therapy at the Korsakoff Clinic. What matters most is not so much whether or not Shiv had a hand in her brother's death, as she so accuses herself, but the relationships she builds with the other teen residents of the clinic and the arc of her treatment. Each session of therapy opens another window to Shiv's time in Greece before her brother's death--her crush on a handsome, 19-year-old Greek boy, days spent relaxing by the pool with her parents at the villa and the terrifying night her brother lost his life. The characters and the scenery are rendered with such photographic precision that readers will feel as though they're watching a film. They'll also find Bedford's compellingly blunt, sharply drawn narrative (laced with Salinger references) sometimes too painful to read as they experience the harsh treatments right alongside Shiv. The results, however, are absolutely worth it. Beautiful and illuminating but as hard as therapy. (Fiction. 14-18)

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March 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Shiv is embarking on a somewhat experimental therapeutic treatment to help her recover from the sudden death of her younger brother, Declan, during a family vacation in Greece. Shiv's story shifts back and forth in time so that readers are gradually informed about the tensions that emerged on that fateful vacation, the competition Shiv and Declan felt for the attentions of glamorous Nikos, their guide on a scuba diving expedition, and the lies Shiv told to maintain her relationship with Nikos while excluding Declan. No wonder she feels guilty. But she's not alone. Each of the young adults at the Korsakoff Clinic has suffered the traumatic loss of a loved one and each of them feels responsibility for the death. At first, the course of therapy seems relatively benign: walking, talking, and writing. The subsequent stages are much more brutal and are intended to break the patients psychologically in order to patch them together again. This is a dangerous process, and not all of the teens will be able to recover their equilibrium. Part-mystery, part-romance, and part-disturbing portrait of how fragile the human psyche can be, this novel is provocative and not for the faint of heart.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2014
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* Fifteen-year-old Shiv and her 12-year-old brother, Declan, accompany their parents to Greece for a two-week vacation. Just before they are scheduled to leave, tragedy strikes and three of them return home to bury the fourth. Shiv is consumed by guilt and overwhelmed by grief, believing beyond the shadow of a doubt that Declan's death was completely her fault. Unable to function, Shiv allows herself to become a resident at the Korsakoff Clinic, where she will undergo their brand of nontraditional, progressive treatment. Five other teens who bear the wreckage of similar losses constitute the rest of the residents. When asked what she would have done differently, Shiv struggles to find an answer. She is unable to erase the happy time spent on the island with Nikos, the handsome young man with whom both Shiv and Declan were enamored, yet Nikos figures prominently in the late-night motorcycle race on the steep and winding roads of the island that resulted in grievous injuries and death. Alternating chronological stories of the vacation with the stay at the clinic, Bedford skillfully pushes and pulls at the reader's emotions while carefully revealing the details of the backstory and the aftermath until the two converge. Hand this compelling novel to readers who thrive on complex narratives.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)