I haven’t read this author in a while, although I loved her If I Stay series. This book has a bit of that same feel to it, with a daughter that had supposedly died when a car hit her bicycle. We don’t know that at the beginning of the story however. We just read about Amber riding her bike home from school at the end of her senior year. But when she shows up, no one is home. However when someone does come home, it is shocking, and it’s because to them, she died 7 years ago. 

So Amber has to figure out what exactly is going on. Why is she back? Things of course have changed so much in those 7 years. Her parents are divorced, a common occurrence when a child dies. Her 10 year old sister is now the same age she was or the same age she thinks she is now. Her boyfriend seems to have become completely different from what she remembers. And her aunt, who used to be her mom’s best friend has left the country and hasn’t been back. An old friend of hers that she did something mean to when they were younger because she wanted to move on to new friends seems to be there for her now as well. 

But that’s when I got the hint that maybe it was more than just her being back from the dead. Her friend Dina said she couldn’t go in somewhere with Amber, and I was thinking that was weird. Was Dina alive? Or was Dina not allowed to go into that place because her mother was a cop, so obviously she’d keep her away from unsafe people/places?

When we got Amber’s POV it was in first person. But there were other people in the book we got their POV in 3rd person. Such as her sister. Some people who seemed kind of random too. A teacher, a school photographer, etc. The way those people filled in the story was good, and all the little connections that seemed random were perfect. I really liked how it all fit together at the end, making the story more than just a girl back from the dead, and adding some philosophical aspects to the story. Even getting a mystery solved by all these little puzzle pieces and seemingly unrelated connections.

I definitely can’t wait to share this one with my students, and I could see it being a possible Gateway nominee in a year or two!