Dead Rules

It's humiliating to die in a bowling accident, especially when it means going through the afterlife in a pair of bowling shoes. Even more serious for high school junior Jana Webster is the separation from her one true love, Michael. So although Jana is a "Riser" at the Dead School, on the fast track for salvation, she gravitates toward Mars, a "Slider" headed the other way, because he has the knowledge she needs to slip into the living world and affect things there. Michael must die for the lovers to spend eternity together, and that's worth any price%E2%80%94even if Jana has to be the one to kill him. Despite the Southern gothic humor that runs throughout adult author Russell's first YA novel, he takes Jana's dilemma, and Mars's reaction to it, seriously. Jana's devotion to the idea of eternal love may be over the top, but it's a realistic form of excess, and Mars never scoffs. Laughter, for Russell, is not an act of mockery or ironic distance, but rather a marker for empathy with his very human characters. Ages 12%E2%80%93up. (July)