Nilsson (Heart's Delight
) uses an alternating third-person narrative to build suspense as he threads together the lives of three memorable young people: sixth-grader Anon ("short for 'anonymous,' " he overhears his mother tell a friend), sensuous 17-year-old Zarah with a volatile boyfriend, and Nils, whom readers first meet as his friend shuts him inside a coffin (at Nils's request). The characters may be offbeat, but the author renders them completely credible. The trio's lives intertwine subtly at first. Anon finds a wallet belonging to a girl named Sara (the author drops a hint when Zarah mentions a "mirror sister" named Sara); Nils observes Anon walking into a lamppost through a coffee shop window; and Zarah randomly picks out Nils in a bar as the object of a ploy to make her boyfriend jealous. At times, Zarah's sexual adventures with Victor become quite graphic; in one such incident, Victor and Zarah have sex in the woods—on the very spot where Nils is temporarily buried (to once again experience what death might feel like). Nilsson's well-honed sense of irony leavens the novel's darker themes, and the triumphant merging of the trio's lives brings about unexpected and uplifting epiphanies for all three characters. With no tidy wrap-up, the novel will keep readers thinking about these characters' lives long after the final page. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
