Connor, Leslie. Dead on Town Line

Kliatt, July, 2005 by Myrna Marler

CONNOR, Leslie. Dead on town line. Penguin, Dial. 131p. c2005. 0-8027-3021-7 $15.99. JS

This book is The Lovely Bones meets Make Lemonade. In other words, the narrator is a dead girl whose body has been hidden in a crevice at the town line, and she tells her story in free verse as she waits to be found by searchers combing the countryside, draining ponds and lakes, and looking everywhere but where she is. Sixteen-year-old Cassie Devlin lived with her mother, loved and made music, had a boyfriend, and befriended the wrong girl because she felt her duty was to be nice to everyone. But the wrong girl wants to be Cassie, tries to steal her boyfriend, steals her music, and ultimately steals her life. Dead, Cassie befriends another ghost girl, Birdie, murdered some 50 years before. Both watch and wait, virtually powerless to affect the outcome of events except through an extrasensory perception transmitted through the blowing autumn leaves and rustling grass. The themes explore love, loss, death, and life beyond the grave. The conclusion seems to be that love will live on and evil will defeat itself.

This slight novel is not great poetry but the story is engaging, the images haunting; and it might work well as a way to introduce young girls to the magic of language. The plot might be for older girls, but the slenderness of the story may make it more appropriate for young girls. Myrna Marler, Assoc. Prof. of English, BYU, Provo, UT

J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.

S--Recommended for senior high school students.