Wherever You Go

October 10, 2011
Davis (The Clearing) takes on the difficult terrain of grief through the eyes of three teens: Holly, who speaks in the first person; Jason, whose experience is narrated in the third person; and Rob, the dead boy, speaking in the second person. It’s a risky narrative strategy, executed with significant if not unqualified success. Holly, appropriately, is the most sympathetic character. She survived the accident that killed her boyfriend, but has much more to deal with—keeping house for her working mother, watching over a nine-year-old sister and a grandfather sinking into dementia, and facing a future she can’t imagine. Each teen is withholding secrets, and it’s in this that the narrative round robin is weakest. As preoccupied as they are with the accident’s aftermath, and as intimately as Davis brings readers into their thoughts, the conceit that none of them would think directly about why the accident happened is slightly contrived. Nevertheless, the story is a welcome addition to the shelf of YA books that deal honestly with grief. Without sugarcoating, it achieves a melancholy sweetness that is becoming a hallmark of Davis’s work. Ages 12–up.

November 1, 2011

Gr 8 Up-Dealing with grief and overwhelming family responsibilities are themes blended with the sort of paranormal characters that populate Gayle Forman's If I Stay (Dutton, 2009), Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones (Little, Brown, 2002), and the 1990 movie Ghost. When Rob's car goes airborne while he's driving his girlfriend home after a party, Holly ends up in the hospital, and he ends up dead-but not gone. His best friend, Jason, can't see him; his family can't see him; and Holly can't see him. He doesn't understand why he's stuck on Earth. Finally, when Holly's Alzheimer's-addled grandfather moves in, Rob registers on someone's radar. Too bad Aldo's rapid Italian mutterings to Roberto seem to Holly like just another facet of the disease that forced him to move in. She's just trying to cope with losing Rob and taking care of her nine-year-old sister while her mom works two jobs when Aldo becomes yet another burden piled on her young shoulders. Slowly, Jason reaches out to Holly, even pitching in with her family duties and helping Aldo revisit his precious memories. Rob punctuates the narrative of Holly's growing trust and affection for Jason in talks with Aldo about how to move on, by observation of his family's counseling sessions, and yes, through some jealousy as he watches his best friend and girlfriend fall in love. This tale is a comfortable read for those who want more than a pink-covered romance or a melodramatic story of loss, neither cotton-candy light nor three-hankie dark.-Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA

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