Touching the Surface
Elliot is a third-timer at the Obmil, the afterlife limbo between heaven and hell where people are sent to learn from their previous mistakes. She has returned after causing the car wreck that killed a young man when she reached for her ringing cell phone. This time she will be expected to Delve, an afterlife process that forces a person to revisit his or her previous life; it’s a painful self-examination made more so because Elliot’s Delve involves Oliver, the boy she killed, and his older brother Trevor. How could they both forgive her when she is unable to forgive herself? And why is her best friend, Julia, avoiding her in this third afterlife? First-time-novelist Sabatini has created an intriguing new world for teens, one that speculates about what happens to souls upon death, especially if the death has been traumatic or self-inflicted. It’s a didactic but effective lesson in love, forgiveness, and self-understanding made more palatable by Elliot’s love for the two brothers and the drama that surrounds the other third-timers in the Obmil. Grades 8-11. --Frances Bradburn