But Then I Came Back

If you’re in a coma, where are you? Is there a place between life and death? Unanswerable questions, but not for 17-year-old Eden Jones, a type-A ballerina who hits her head and nearly drowns. When she wakes up after a month, she has another question to face: what’s it like to get your old life back? Eden is having visions she doesn’t understand; she can’t stop thinking about Jaz, a fellow coma patient; and then there’s handsome, worried Joe, Jaz’s best friend, who may be something more for Eden. Laure creates an intriguing blend of realism and the unknowable in her sophomore novel, a companion of sorts to The Raging Light, in which Eden was a secondary character. Jaz can’t speak, but she can communicate with Eden, and the “In Between” place where Eden spent her coma is depicted as real and alluring, a place of comfort that’s only worth leaving if you’re loved. Eden is simultaneously tough and fragile, and her struggle to figure out what her life should look like is compelling. Ages 14–up Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (Apr.)