Categorized as Science Fiction - provocative - mind-blowing

Take a moment to imagine what your own private hell might look like...  Got an image?  Well, in the opening scene of this book, our main character Seth drowns and dies - a rather intensely portrayed drowning, I might add (and note that this is NOT the worst of it!)   He is bewildered to awaken unclothed, starving, and thirsty in a bizarrely unpopulated and dusty world that is somehow familiar to him. Turns out, it's his childhood home in England - where he lived before the family moved to America - and he's about to face his own private hell.  Interestingly, it's taken his own death to get him to confront his demons.  Whenever Seth closes his eyes in this strange seemingly apocalyptic world, troubling past events haunt him in nightmares - these dreams include his family, the boy he loves and past traumas.  The reader shares the oddity of the situation and wonders whether Seth is in heaven, hell, a fully reborn life?  What the heck is happening?  Is he really alive?  READ marked EXCERPT

Patrick Ness crafts a strange story leading us to an intense denouement as the reader slowly discovers the truths of Seth's life and how it has shaped him.  I can't really say much more - it sounds cliché to say that, but too much more information will be too revealing!  Just know that this is a bizarre and philosophical teen journey that really makes you think, and will offer a bit of hope through all the horror of Seth's private hell.  Accept my invitation to take a strange and extraordinary journey!

This book has more appeal for guys, but girls may also enjoy the story - I did!  (Booktalk by NH Flume Committee)