Touching the Surface

September 15, 2012
This ambitious take on the afterlife doesn't quite deliver. Seventeen-year-old Elliot Turner has arrived at the Obmil--a Limbo-esque destination for the departed--for her third and most likely last time. Before souls can move on to the unknown beyond, they must reconcile issues from their past lives, but they are only given three chances. Also entering the Obmil is Elliot's best friend Julia (who has been with her throughout her two prior lives, but didn't factor into her life as Elliot), the handsome, charismatic Oliver and the dark, brooding Trevor. The quartet knows that they share a connection, but have no access to their past memories unless they Delve, an act somewhere between a lucid dream and hypnosis. As the group Delves, they find they must confront their greatest fears and discover the tenuous bonds between them. Predictably, there is a love triangle among Elliot, Oliver and Trevor, and while the scenes with the tempestuous Trevor have some smolder, the tension amid the trio sizzles out abruptly. Similarly, Julia and Elliot's relationship seems to have a lot of drama, but it never gets the development or attention it deserves and often takes a hurried back seat to the brewing angst between Elliot and Trevor. The concept, while intriguing, feels rushed and cramped. Like the wayward souls in the book, some of the plotlines seem to unfortunately get lost in the fray. (Paranormal romance. 13 & up)

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October 15, 2012
Grades 8-11 Elliot is a third-timer at the Obmil, the afterlife limbo between heaven and hell where people are sent to learn from their previous mistakes. She has returned after causing the car wreck that killed a young man when she reached for her ringing cell phone. This time she will be expected to Delve, an afterlife process that forces a person to revisit his or her previous life; it's a painful self-examination made more so because Elliot's Delve involves Oliver, the boy she killed, and his older brother Trevor. How could they both forgive her when she is unable to forgive herself? And why is her best friend, Julia, avoiding her in this third afterlife? First-time-novelist Sabatini has created an intriguing new world for teens, one that speculates about what happens to souls upon death, especially if the death has been traumatic or self-inflicted. It's a didactic but effective lesson in love, forgiveness, and self-understanding made more palatable by Elliot's love for the two brothers and the drama that surrounds the other third-timers in the Obmil.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)