Meet me in the middle

Gr 8 Up--Light has done it again--this is a great YA contemporary romance. Eighteen-year-old Eden is a Portuguese girl newly living and working in Toronto for a few months before her freshman year in college begins. This was always the plan for her and her best friend, Katie (white). However, plans change one tragic night when Katie is injured in a car accident that leaves her in a coma. Now, five months later, Katie is still in a coma, and Eden is riddled with guilt and sadness because she was with her secret crush, Katie's brother Truman (also white) when the accident occurred. She and Truman haven't seen or spoken to one another since everything happened, and now, after a mysterious absence, Truman is back. Eden doesn't know how to deal with his return or how to live her life without Katie by her side. This story focuses on the trauma and grief experienced when someone suffers a loss, made unique because the person being mourned is neither dead nor alive, but in limbo. Readers are privy to both Eden's and Truman's points of views as they attempt to navigate their mixed feelings about themselves, each other, and Katie's fate. VERDICT The writing is heartbreakingly beautiful. Readers will immediately be drawn into this interestingly painful journey as the characters try to find their way out of the darkness, alone and together.--Lacey Webster

A young woman grapples with trying to move forward in her life after her best friend's accident. Eighteen-year-old Eden is taking a gap year after finishing high school, waitressing and sharing a downtown Toronto apartment with a roommate, instead of the original plan: going to university and living with her best friend, Katie. Instead, Katie is lying in the hospital in a coma after a car accident. Truman, Katie's older brother, has just returned from Montreal after disappearing for two months to attend an art workshop that was more a means of coping with his sister's state than about developing his art. The night of Katie's accident, Eden and Truman were sharing their first kiss, something they haven't discussed, and they've been doing their best to avoid each other. Now, the city seems determined to connect the two as their paths continue to cross. In this novel told in their alternating points of view, each feels responsible for Katie's accident. Eden's grief still contains a painful element of hope; it feels palpable as she navigates figuring out who she is when so much of her identity was wrapped up in her friendship with Katie. While Truman's chapters don't carry the same emotional depth and can feel bloated, they do offer moments of levity that help round out the painful and confusing circumstances. Most characters read as White. A compelling look at complicated grief. (Fiction. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.