"Every ten years in the strange little town of Lennon, California, one person is chosen to return from the dead…
Wilson Moss entered the town's top-secret contest in the hopes of resurrecting her ex-best friend Annie LeBlanc, but that doesn't mean she thought she'd actually win. Now Annie's back and Wil's ecstatic—does it even really matter that Annie ghosted her a year before she died…?
But like any contest, there are rules, and the town's resurrected dead can only return for thirty days. When Wil discovers a loophole that means Annie might be able to stay for good, she's desperate to keep her alive. The potential key? Their third best friend, Ryan. Forget the fact that Ryan openly hates them both, or that she and Wilson have barely spoken since that awkward time they kissed. Wil can put it aside for one month; she just needs to stop thinking about it first.
Because Wil has one summer to permanently put an end to her loneliness—it's that, or lose her only friends…again. But along the way, she might have to face some difficult truths about Annie's past and their friendship that, so far, she's left buried."
I got an ARC of this book.
I did not read all of the description, I read the bold part and then saw it was queer. That was it. So I was surprised by some of the details that others know going in. One day I may fix this quirk of mine so I read a full book description, but it made this feel so alive. Not knowing that Annie ghosted made it have a huge tonal shift really fast. It was wonderful.
The romance is weird. I didn't really get it. It felt like it was all of a sudden. It didn't really work for me. The end result did, but getting there felt like a weird deviation. The more compelling plot that also felt a bit side lined was the feelings the MC had about her mom. Those were intense and complicated, but it felt thrown on and not given as much time as it deserved. I loved the plot, but I wish it had gotten more page time to really make it powerful. It took me a bit to realize that her parents were her parents since they were introduced by name at the same time as her sister, so I kept flipping the names around. Once I got it, it was just a weird detail that I enjoyed. Gave the feelings around not being enough some teeth.
The idea the book focuses more on was how to keep Annie after her 30 days are up. The thought process and set up for that was mild, just don't think too hard level of set up. It worked. I didn't really need the details to enjoy the story. If it were an adult book, I think too much time would have been devoted to setting up that part of the world instead of just going. It kept the book more about the characters than about how magic works.
I read this over two days. It was fun to read and I wanted to see what happened. I didn't have to think really hard and it was mostly clear what was going to happen (outside of the romance). It is not the most amazing book I have read this year, but I really enjoyed it and can see myself getting more by Morris.
4 out of 5 stars. I would recommend this book.
You can buy the book here.
~Isaiah
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