"Chasing Brooklyn" by Lisa Schroeder

Both Brooklyn and Nico are trying to recover from the death of Lucca. Lucca was Brooklyn's boyfriend and Nico's brother. Almost a year to the day after Lucca's death, his best friend Gabe dies too. Brooklyn and Nico are both being haunted, Brooklyn by Gabe and Nico by Lucca. The two begin a friendship that will help them battle their demons and reclaim their place among the living.

I liked this book just fine, but felt like it didn't need to be written in verse. The poems weren't very memorable in terms of their structure and it almost seemed like a device to have shorter "chapters." Each poem alternates between the point of view of the two characters, so each character only gets a few pages at a time. Despite this, I did enjoy the plot of this novel. It is a very touching and poignant novel and Lisa Schroeder does an excellent job at capturing the lives of those affected by a great loss. I also liked that the ghost element of the story doesn't completely overwhelm the plot so it's still a story about two teenagers dealing with the changes in their lives and not two teenagers dealing with their haunted bedrooms. I have now read several books by Schroeder and have found that I prefer her books for younger readers, but either way, Chasing Brooklyn is still worth a read.

Happy Reading!
-Melly