Grief in the Fourth Dimension

Starred review from April 29, 2024
This richly rendered speculative novel by Yu (Imagine Us Happy) follows deceased high school seniors Kenny Zhou and
Caroline Davison, who find themselves in pseudo-purgatory, a stark-white room outfitted with a television that shows them what’s happening to their loved ones back in the land of the living. A mysterious entity seemingly able to read their thoughts sends them notes commenting on the scenarios playing out on screen, and the teens soon realize that they can influence situations occurring in the real world in small, surreptitious ways. They resolve to help each other accomplish personal goals: Kenny will save his family’s struggling restaurant and Caroline will assist her family in finding justice and closure regarding the circumstances of her death. As the duo watch the events unfold, they learn more about their own hidden connections and come to terms with the impact that their deaths have on their communities. Yu’s prose sings with lush and powerful empathy and makes good on the novel’s wild premise by blending humor and pathos with fantastical worldbuilding and genuine emotional stakes. Caroline reads as white; Kenny is of Chinese descent. Ages 14–up.

May 15, 2024
In the afterlife, two teenagers connect and search for answers following their deaths. In life at Winterton High School, Kenny Zhou and Caroline Davison hardly interacted, but after each dies unexpectedly, they find themselves together in a mysterious white room with a television screen that shows them the ones they left behind. Kenny, a science whiz whose closest friend was loyal fellow Science Olympian Iris Mutisya, was the son of Chinese immigrant parents who owned a restaurant that's now on the brink of bankruptcy. Kenny and Iris, who's Black, stood out in their overwhelmingly white school. Popular Caroline, who's white, left behind her high-status parents, younger brother, and boyfriend. She doesn't remember her death and has trouble accepting it. As they watch their loved ones mourn while also forming new connections with one another, Caroline and Kenny build their own tentative bond with each other. But as love, memory, and grief play out in the search for healing, the fragile trust among everyone is tested. Yu addresses complicated, uncomfortable themes around race, privilege, and power, though at times the portrayal of some characters, such as Caroline's mother, feels lacking in nuance. But the conceit is a perennially popular one, the plot is absorbing, and the measured tone is effective. A quietly moving tale that asks how privilege might affect the search for closure in the wake of tragedy. (Speculative fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2024
Grades 9-12 What happens when you die? Seventeen-year-old Chinese American Kenny discovers the answer when he finds himself in an all-white room with only a 72-inch high-definition television mounted on the wall, on which he sees his own funeral. He's not alone for long, since classmate Caroline appears, convinced she's having a fever dream until it dawns on her that she's dead and that, she believes, she and Kenny are in purgatory, a feature of which is the notes that fall from the ceiling with messages: "Please don't be sad," "Please don't fight." In the meantime, the TV, unbidden, constantly shows them significant scenes from their survivors' lives. Kenny's cash-strapped parents are struggling to keep their restaurant open, while Caroline's parents are rehearsing their lines for the sentencing of the drunk driver who killed her. Friends, however, want the sentence mitigated--but why? Kudos to Yu (Imagine Us Happy, 2018), who has beautifully crafted an original, highly imaginative story, complete with intriguing imponderables that will capture readers' imaginations.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.