The Catastrophic History of You & Me

February 20, 2012
When Brie's boyfriend, Jacob, dumps her, the 15-year-old girl literally dies of a broken heart. She's left floating above her family and friends, attempting to piece together the fragments of her brief life and how it all came to an end with the four devastating words, "I don't love you." With the help of Patrick, a cute and funny boy who died in the 1980s, Brie passes through the stages of grief. Along the way, she witnesses the people she loved mourn her (including her cardiac surgeon father, who frantically searches for a logical explanation for her death), revisits episodes from her past, and exacts ghostly revenge on her ex. Secondary characters can be slight, and elements of Rothenberg's premise are derivative of other titles featuring deceased teens in limbo. However, thanks to Brie's fresh and poignant narration, this first novel brings a welcome touch of irreverence to the larger themes of death, heartbreak, and forgiveness as Brie learns that sometimes there really are second chances. Ages 12âup. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Foundry Literary + Media.

December 15, 2011
When Brie's heart literally breaks, killing her, she must go through the five stages of grief before moving on in the afterlife. Brie leaves behind a loving family, three best friends and a first boyfriend whose declaration that he didn't love her caused the bizarre heart event that offed her. Under the guidance of the annoying-but-hot Patrick, she explores the afterlife, haunts her ex-boyfriend and works her way through the D&G Handbook (D&G stands for "dead and gone"). It's Patrick who tells her that her first task in the afterlife is to work through those five classic stages: denial, anger, bargaining, sadness and acceptance. Brie is a likable-enough narrator, when she's not being vengeful. But Rothenberg's afterlife is irritatingly undefined for one that comes complete with a handbook. Rules seem to be applied more for narrative convenience than any adherence to complete concept, and the twist that drives the climax, while satisfying in an It's A Wonderful Life kind of way, comes out of nowhere. Moreover, her progress through the stages of grief becomes muddied by her continued interactions with the living world. Yes, she's angry, but it's hard to tell whether she's angry at dying or at her ex-boyfriend. Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere (2005) stands out as far better treatment of a similar concept. Interesting idea, not-so-great execution. (Fiction. 13 & up)

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

February 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Shortly before her 16th birthday, Brie Eagan dies of a broken heart (literally) when her boyfriend, Jacob, tells her that he doesn't love her. What happens after her death, as narrated by Brie, carries readers to a complex afterlife full of surprises and challenges. At the Little Slice of Heaven pizzeria, aka "Forever," she meets charming Patrick, who gives her a handbook offering advice for dealing with eternity. Although Brie largely ignores the guide, she can't escape passing through the messy stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance) as she returns to view her family and friends. When she learns that Jacob lied to her, she's determined to get revenge for what she originally interprets as his betrayal despite feeling powerless to set things right. Fortunately, she does figure out her relationship with Patrick in time to save him from spending eternity as a lost soul. Brie's recollections of life on Earth and her reactions to her new reality blend humor, uncertainty, anger, and hope. While travels through various regions of the afterlife are intriguing, the book's more valuable insights concern how people misinterpret the motives, actions, and emotions of others. In her debut novel, Rothenberg supplies readers with an imaginative and intriguing vision of what might happen after death.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2012
Grades 8-11 At 16, Brie dies of a broken heart when Jacob declares that he does not love her. Now, waiting in the great beyond, she is shown the ropes by 20-year-dead Patrick and reluctantly begins working through the stages of grief over her own death. She studies the guide to being D&G (dead and gone), learning first to haunt Jacob and her best friend, Sadie (who seems to know Jacob a little too well) and later how to strike a dangerous deal for a one-day do-over. As she copes with her grief and eternity, things become both simpler (she is and will always be dead) and more complicated: How much is a soul worth? Who was she before she was Brie? What does it mean to really love someone forever? Weaving significant contemporary issues into a romance flecked with humor, Rothenberg blends genres in a fresh and heart-wrenching way. With echoes of Thornton Wilder's Our Town and Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall (2010), this is an emotional and thoughtful first novel with a twist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)