Dispatches from Terabithia

When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she learns two things: first, someone tried to kill her with their car while she was walking home one night; second, that she now has the ability to see people's deaths when they touch her. It's a tossup as to which is the more traumatic.

This is very clearly a YA novel -- the romance is tame, the trauma is mild, the recovery is easy. But what it also is is very creepy -- in some ways, it feels very much like an episode of Criminal Minds, complete with resident homicidal psychopath. It feels like a horror novel at times -- but it also feels very much like a teen book.

Related, somewhat: I am also always kind of relieved when a book contains a straight-forward approach to sex when it's aimed at young adults. Abstinence education is all well and good, but the fact is that sex happens. This book acknowledges that fact, and while romance is discussed, so are birth control, STD testing, and the consequences of neither.

All in all, a fun read. I get progressively more impressed with Marr's ability to straddle fantasy and horror with something that's reminiscent of a simple magical realism novel (not that anything is ever so simple). I loved Graveminder. I did not love Carnival of Secrets, which wandered far off into the realm of strange. It's weird for an author to range from 2 to 5 stars for me, but so be it.

Trigger warnings for my friends: there is some sex, some off-screen sexual violence, and violence in general, though all fairly mild as far as such things go.