I think YA books can be so incredibly interesting. I love spending time in the mind of a young person...even if they are murdered in the first pages of the book and tell their story their story in the afterlife. ( )

I realized I had not read any books by Soto and chose this one to rectify that situation.

Chuy is a young man, full of himself, rather average but enjoying life. In a club men's room he makes a fatal error and admires another man's yellow shoes. The response was three knife wounds and Chuy died on the floor there. His spirit (ghost, whatever) rises up and sees his body on the floor and quickly figures out what is going on. He uses his new situation to float around visiting his parents and friends and even runs into the man who knifed him. He also meets folks in the same situation, one a very pretty girl.

This story was in the same vein as Lovely Bones but not nearly as impactful. ( )

RGG: The opening scene may be horrific--a teenage boy from the LA Barrio is knifed to death; the remainder of the story we see the world through forty-eight hours or so of the boy being a ghost, including his falling in love with a girl ghost. Somber and realistic this is not light-hearted, entertaing magical realism. And the boy's acceptance of his death is worrisome. Reading Level: 14-YA.

Chuy is stabbed in a nightclub restroom and left to die at age 17. His ghost floats around town as he visits his family and girlfriend, attends his funeral, spooks his murderer, and meets other ghosts. He ponders the life he no longer will live. He falls in love with the ghost of a girl who committed suicide and he helps her deal with the transition to the afterlife.

RGG: The opening scene may be horrific--a teenage boy from the LA Barrio is knifed to death; the remainder of the story we see the world through forty-eight hours or so of the boy being a ghost, including his falling in love with a girl ghost. Somber and realistic this is not light-hearted, entertaing magical realism. And the boy's acceptance of his death is worrisome. Reading Level: 14-YA.