The End or Something Like That

Starred review from March 3, 2014
“When your best friend dies, things happen. You lie under your bed. You plan spiritual visitations. You watch a lot of TV. You eat turkey burgers.” Writing in clipped, emotionally deadened prose that carries the weight of grief, Ellis (Everything Is Fine) catalogues 15-year-old Emmy’s struggle with her friend’s sudden death. Alternating chapters take readers between the present, with the one-year anniversary of Kim’s death approaching, and flashbacks to the preceding months. Following Kim’s collapse in the cafeteria, Emmy is mired in her pain, but when she starts seeing and interacting with her newly deceased earth science teacher, Emmy dares to hope a “visitation” from Kim might be possible. A consult with Ted Farnsworth, a dubious medium whose seminar Emmy and Kim had attended, builds confidence in the likelihood of it happening. The Las Vegas setting powerfully contrasts the absurdity of life against the separation of death, and several truly uncomfortable scenes involving Emmy’s classmates lays bare just how ill-equipped many people are to handle death. A hard-hitting story about remembering the dead while not forgetting the living. Ages 12–up. Agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.

March 15, 2014
Emmy sees dead people--but not the one she really wants to see. It's been one year since Emmy's best friend, Kim, succumbed to her congenital heart disease while they were both in eighth grade. Before her death, Kim had made Emmy promise to contact her on important dates. Now that the anniversary of Kim's death approaches, Emmy has been seeing, communicating with and even helping other recently deceased individuals navigate their transitions to death. So why can't she find Kim? Chapters with different typefaces alternate between Emmy's current, grief-stricken state and events leading up to Kim's death, most notably Kim's interest in a supposed medium touring their Las Vegas-area community. Although the quiet novel is a traditional prose narrative told from Emmy's perspective, ample white space occasionally gives the story the look and feel of a verse novel. As she reconciles her feelings for the once popular and beautiful Kim, overweight Emmy also confronts such issues as self-image, bullying, the growing pains of adolescent friendships and first kisses. A slow start may deter some, but sophisticated readers who stick with the story will find a thoughtful search for closure and acceptance. (Fiction. 12-15)

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May 1, 2014

Gr 6-10-It is the one-year anniversary of her best friend Kim's death, and Emmy is still reeling from the loss. Emmy made a promise to Kim that, once she died, Emmy would contact her ghost, but as it turns out, "I suck at talking to dead people." When Emmy attends the funeral of her science teacher, however, she is shocked to be visited by Ms. Homeyer's spirit. If she can see Ms. Homeyer's ghost, why hasn't she been able to see Kim? As Emmy sees more and more dead people-everyone but Kim-she begins to explore her complicated emotions and relationships. Told in parallel time lines, Emmy describes the months leading up to Kim's death, including a major betrayal and strong skepticism about the possibility of an afterlife; she also tells her story in real time, one year after Kim's death. For a significant portion of the story, Emmy is not an easy character to love; she's prickly, self-centered, and emotionally closed-off from those around her. As the story progresses, though, she opens herself up to others: her mother, her brother, and Skeeter, the sweet boy who has adored her all along. Just as she did in This Is What I Did (Little, Brown, 2007), Ellis skillfully captures what it's like to be a kid who flies beneath the radar and is afraid to speak up. The story's ending, though too-quickly resolved, is still lovely; readers will realize that it's not about trying to find a ghost. It's about trying to find oneself.-Laura Lutz, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2014
Grades 6-9 Fragile, insecure Emmy has been in a free fall since her best friend Kim's death from a congenital heart defect. Not that Kim was sickly or spent her life in hospitals; she was, rather, a lively, fun type who lit up Emmy's life. Quirky, adventurous Kim even investigated a huckster's program that promises the terminally ill the ability to set up a visitation path and come back after death. The story hurtles through the one-year anniversary of Kim's death, as Emmy desperately plans and hopes for that visitation. Interspersed between the real-time chapters of the anniversary day are flashback chapters from when Kim was alive, enabling the reader to savor the full context of the girls' friendship. Meanwhile, Emmy sees other deceased folks in her quest to find the returning Kimor does she imagine them? The sudden death of a science teacher at school errs on the crude side in its depiction, but the choppy, edgy tone of Ellis' dialogue illuminates Emmy's longing for her old friend. She practically burns with intensity, even as she gradually begins to move on.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
Emmy has put her life on hold, waiting for her dead best friend to "cross the veil" and visit, as Kim had promised; Emmy does see ghosts, but not Kim's. Told in brief, tantalizing chapters interspersed with longer flashbacks, the plot unfolds in a satisfyingly deliberate pace. Deceptively simple language helps untangle themes of friendship, jealousy, guilt, and grief.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)