cover image Wherever You Go

Wherever You Go

Heather Davis. Harcourt, $16.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-547-50151-2

Davis (The Clearing) takes on the difficult terrain of grief through the eyes of three teens: Holly, who speaks in the first person; Jason, whose experience is narrated in the third person; and Rob, the dead boy, speaking in the second person. It’s a risky narrative strategy, executed with significant if not unqualified success. Holly, appropriately, is the most sympathetic character. She survived the accident that killed her boyfriend, but has much more to deal with—keeping house for her working mother, watching over a nine-year-old sister and a grandfather sinking into dementia, and facing a future she can’t imagine. Each teen is withholding secrets, and it’s in this that the narrative round robin is weakest. As preoccupied as they are with the accident’s aftermath, and as intimately as Davis brings readers into their thoughts, the conceit that none of them would think directly about why the accident happened is slightly contrived. Nevertheless, the story is a welcome addition to the shelf of YA books that deal honestly with grief. Without sugarcoating, it achieves a melancholy sweetness that is becoming a hallmark of Davis’s work. Ages 12–up. (Nov.)