This one is from Kirkus:
After her younger brother's suicide, ordinarily rational Alexis starts seeing her younger brother's ghost.Seven weeks after Ty shot himself with a hunting rifle, Alexis' mom announces she's seen him in the house. Alexis, a math student with aspirations of attending MIT, is skeptical but soon sees visions of her own. Alexis watches Ty die in recurring dreams, reluctantly relives firsts and lasts in a journal suggested by her therapist, and tries to stay strong for her mom, who is drinking to cope and certain that her own life is over. Alexis herself hasn't cried since her brother's death. Instead, moments of intense emotion open what Alexis powerfully describes as a "hole in my chest." The hauntings here are more emotional than paranormal, and Alexis' journey primarily entails reconnecting with estranged friends and family and slowly moving on. The characters involved are many—a childhood friend-turned-occultist stoner, Alexis' emotionally absent father and Ty's last girlfriend, to name a few—but each storyline is distinctly important and carefully woven in. Details of Ty's last days, Alexis' sense of guilt and the incident itself are revealed slowly and are often unexpected but always believable. Evocative and insightful. (Fiction. 14-18)
And this one from the School Library Journal:
Gr 8 Up-For Lex, since her brother committed suicide, questions about their last
goodbye have haunted her. Filled with regret, she ponders their last words and
not being able to show him how much she loved him while he was still alive. The
narrative unravels in perfect pacing, drawing readers into this emotional story.
With a rocky home life in a small town in Nebraska, Lex begins pulling away from
her friends, breaks up with her boyfriend, and struggles with life in general.
When her therapist, Dave, assigns her the task of writing down her thoughts in a
journal, flashbacks of the siblings' relationship and the protagonist's
interactions with their parents fill in the gaps. Readers will be drawn in by
the even pacing, the heavy moments never overwhelming the teen's story. Raw,
emotional, and gripping, this book is Hand's first realistic fiction title, and
fans of her popular "Unearthly" series (HarperCollins) will follow her genre
change willingly. Libraries should jump at having this book, not only because of
the author's previous work, but because it is an excellent and thoughtful
exploration of grief.-Stephanie Charlefour, Wixom Public Library, MI
Whew! I am always a little fretful about reviews, but this book is especially dear to me so the good reviews mean even more.
