The Ghosts We Keep

This is a book about loss, and how to find the strength to keep going after your whole life seems shattered. It's a very, very hard and consuming task, but is necessary. Liam is going through it, trying to pick pieces of his older brother's life while looking for sad strength to continue his own.

“I was foolish in my belief that grief was a straightforward thing. I thought the first wave would hit, and gradually the feelings of sadness and desperation would slip away until I found myself normal again. But I was so very wrong. Because grief is a complicated, ugly, messy thing. And it makes you do complicated, ugly, messy things.”

It's a heartbreakingly real story.

This was a real bummer of a book but is a good take on grief as well as gender issues with high school age kids. While I didn't have to deal with any of these issues personally, Deaver portrays these things in a really believable way that it was easy to relate to the characters. As with a lot of high school-aged characters I read, as I get older, these characters aren't always easy to like. Liam/Lee, the main protagonist, is very self-absorbed and confused about who they are and want to be, while having the idea that they already know everything they need to. Their friends are also the same. I liked Marcus the best and really felt for him, and Deaver did a good job making him believable as a few years older than Liam. He's going through a lot of the same things as Liam but on an entirely different level, and Liam isn't the most empathetic character.
Overall, a definite recommend to younger readers going through a loss while coming to terms with who they are but I'm definitely not the intended audience.