What Remains

March 1, 2015
A 16-year-old boy attempts to put his life back together after suffering a near-fatal injury in a car accident that leaves his best friend dead. A heart transplant saves Cal Ryan's life, but as he sets out on the road to recovery, a familiar voice begins to invade his thoughts. After some not-so-subtle foreshadowing, Cal finds out that Lizzie, his deceased best friend, is the heart donor; it's her voice he hears. Cal must cope with his grief while nurturing his other friendships, but there isn't much of a plot. He suffers survivor's guilt and must also come to terms with the end of a promising future playing baseball, so his anger and depression are understandable, but he comes across as whiny and unlikable. The story is told in Cal's first-person voice, but too much internal exposition and overuse of "or something" to replace more creative description make for painful reading. Cliches abound: the gay drama geek, the depressed artsy girl, the homophobic jock, and the oblivious love interest populate the novel's thinly drawn world. The theory of cellular memory is tossed around, and ambiguity surrounding whether or not Lizzie's ghostly presence is literal or metaphorical is the novel's only asset. Misses its chance to be a satisfying, big-box-of-tissues tear-jerker. (Fiction. 14-17)

March 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-As long as Cal can remember, he has been part of a trio: Cal, Spencer, and Lizzie. Cal and Spencer have known each other since preschool, and Lizzie came into their lives in first grade. It was obvious even then that Lizzie needed protecting and the boys took the job seriously, often helping Lizzie escape her drunken mother and her string of abusive boyfriends. Now in high school, they are still close, but the dynamic is different; they love one another, but Lizzie is in love with Spencer, even though she knows Spencer is gay. Lizzie's late night admission that she and Spencer slept together once makes Cal feel like an outsider for the first time, although he tries to hide it. Everything changes one afternoon when Cal's car is hit at a high speed by a distracted driver. Spencer only receives superficial bumps and bruises, Lizzie is thrown from the car and killed, and Cal is injured severely enough to require a heart transplant. He is given Lizzie's heart and starts hearing her voice in his head. He also has dreams that he is sure are of Lizzie's life, and he finds himself with some of her artistic talent. It is his inability to overcome his fear of driving that convinces him to start seeing a psychiatrist, and he slowly starts healing and learning to forgive himself. VERDICT This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy Lurlene McDaniel's and Gayle Forman's books.-Suanne B. Roush, formerly at Osceola High School, Seminole, FL

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