Grief in the Fourth Dimension (by Jennifer Yu)
I picked this one up after my frantic Tournament of Books reading (I ended up reading 14 of the 18 books this year) since it has been lingering in my backlog and I enjoy young adult and speculative fiction. (Oh, you don't say...)
Two high school students die and are reborn into a mysterious room where they can view - and attempt to communicate with - their loved ones back on earth. Definitely interesting enough to finish, although it didn't make me cry despite being about literal death so clearly there was something missing for me. I feel like maybe I didn't get to know the characters enough or didn't like them enough. (There are also some editing mistakes that pulled me out of it - one character is named Iris, but is referred to as "Alice" multiple times, for example.)
Not a must-read but also an interesting premise and not a DNF. (And I picked up two more YAs this week that I quickly DNF'd so that's not totally hollow praise!)
Labels: 2025 tob, kindle, library, young adult