Echoes Between Us

December 23, 2019
McGarry (Only a Breath Apart) draws readers deeply into a ghostly world. Sawyer is a 17-year-old high school senior in Kentucky. Popular and athletic, he seems to have everything together, despite some reading difficulties. Also 17, Veronica is the school’s resident weird girl, who marches to her own beat and doesn’t care what people think. Veronica ends up having to partner with skeptical Sawyer for a senior thesis on her favorite topic: ghosts. As they work together, the pair begins to acknowledge their own difficulties: Veronica has a brain tumor, like her mother, and Sawyer is managing his divorced parents and a little sister he’s helping to raise. The teens’ developing romance is secondary to the story’s exploration of challenging subjects, including death, enabling, and addiction recovery. Instead of sensationalizing these topics, though, McGarry expertly normalizes them, and in doing so helps to break social stigmas and encourage frank dialogue. An unusually honest, gracefully crafted portrayal of contemporary teen life. Ages 13–up. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary.