This is Not the End

June 12, 2017
Three weeks before Lake Devereaux’s 18th birthday, her best friend, Penny, and boyfriend, Will, are killed in a car accident. Baker (Teen Frankenstein) sets her novel in a near future where resurrection technology allows every 18-year-old to bring one person back to life, leaving Lake with a big, imminent decision. Further complicating her choice is a secret (and illegal) vow made to her family years before, in which she promised her resurrection to someone who hasn’t yet died. The sweetness of Lake’s burgeoning relationship with Ringo, a boy haunted by his own resurrection choice, counterbalances the story’s themes of death and grief. Through Ringo, Lake’s eyes open to a world outside her insular, long-standing friendship with Penny and Will. Baker never makes Lake’s relationships with her late friends seem unimportant or childish as she delicately illustrates Lake’s growing realization that life is for the living, even in a world in which death doesn’t quite mean what it once did. Lake’s journey of self-discovery is emotional and surprising, and will stay with readers. Ages 14–up. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House.

July 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Life changes in an instant for Lake Devereaux when she survives a tragic car accident that kills her boyfriend and her best friend. In this near-future contemporary novel, teens have the choice to resurrect a loved one when they turn 18. Technology brings people back from the dead and returns them to full health. But Lake's resurrection choice has never been her own. An unspoken family pact has promised Lake's resurrection to her older brother Matt, who is living with quadriplegia as a result of an accident five years earlier. In order to regain the use of his arms and legs, Matt wants to die and be resurrected. But Lark wants no part in Matt's death. The narrative jumps between the past and the present, allowing Lake and readers to piece together the full picture of what happened with Matt's accident as Lake comes closer to her final decision. Baker adeptly slips in clues that develop a complex picture of who Lake is. Unfortunately, the story's intriguing premise is marred by its logic that a person with disabilities is better off as "normal." Matt's anger may be justified, but the assumption that he can lead a full life only if he is no longer quadriplegic is problematic. VERDICT With its references to teen death and possible suicide, this is a possible read-alike for teens fascinated by Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why. Ultimately, this book's depiction of disability is too flawed to recommend it.-Sarah Wethern, Douglas County Library, Alexandria, MN

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2017
Lake Devereaux, 17, lost two beloved friends in a horrific accident, but she's permitted to resurrect just one person, an agonizing choice complicated by a promise made years earlier. Medical breakthroughs have made human resurrection possible. Regulations for population control provide that on their 18th birthday, each teen may elect to resurrect one dead person, at that time only. Resurrection is possible years after death, the resurrected person resuming life, free of flaws or disease, at the age they were when they died. Lake's older brother, Matt, was paralyzed from the neck down in an accident four years ago. Embittered, he stopped trying to kill himself only when their parents secured Lake's promise to resurrect him after a planned suicide. While her dead friends' parents beg Lake to resurrect one of their children, Matt and her parents remind her she's already committed. Then, with a boy she meets in a therapist's waiting room, she uncovers secrets prompting hard questions about her friends, family, and herself (all evidently white). The novel's best when exploring how resurrecting a loved one transforms individuals, families, and friends. The effect on the larger world remains unexplored. Odd, contradictory resurrection rules go unexplained. Could a resurrected person resurrect another person? Resurrection's existed for decades yet seems to have effected only minor, local changes. These worldbuilding defects impede what should be provocative explorations of disability and medical ethics. Shallow execution mars an intriguing premise. (Science fiction. 14-18)

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