The Book of Love by Kelly Link
What a dark, ghoulish, beautiful, and funny book. Kelly Link is a household name among lovers of speculative fiction, but she’s known for short stories. This is her first novel and I adored it. The story mainly follows a group of high schoolers: Laura, Daniel, Mo, and Susannah. Laura, Daniel, and Mo are risen from the dead by their music teacher with no memory of how it happened and an inscrutable task to complete in order to save themselves from what they do vaguely remember was a very not fun afterlife. Then there’s Susannah, Laura’s sister, who didn’t die but is connected to the tragedy, and Bowie, a mysterious stranger who escaped the afterlife with the others. This is a big story with a lot of moving parts and characters, and it’s perfect for that autumn-to-winter transition (it takes place in winter but serves Halloween season vibes).
