tl;dr explores grief and loss in a heartbreaking yet beautiful way - a must read from one of my favorite authors
Premise
When Liam Cooper's older brother Ethan is killed in a hit-and-run, Liam has to not only learn to face the world without one of the people he loved the most, but also face the fading relationship with his two best friends.
Feeling more alone and isolated than ever, Liam finds themself sharing time with Marcus, Ethan's best friend, and through Marcus, Liam finds the one person that seems to know exactly what they're going through, for the better, and the worse.
This book is about grief. But it's also about why we live. Why we have to keep moving on, and why we should.
Rating
4.5/5 stars
Review
I read this book. I sobbed. then I read Mason Deaver's author's note/acknowledgments. I sobbed some more. So much love for this story (and Mason Deaver ofc).
The Ghosts We Keep is a story about Liam, a nonbinary teen dealing with the aftermath of his brother Ethan's death. the story is told in dual timelines, jumping between scenes before Ethan's death and after. The chapters are all dated, so I never got confused as to what was happening. I always love myself a good dual timeline story.
This story was messy but beautiful. As Liam says in the book, grief is never straightforward or linear, and The Ghosts We Keep really reflected that idea. it was raw and didn't project some "perfect", seamless experience of grief. Liam felt every emotion, and I felt it with them. Mason Deaver noted how personal this story was to them, and I feel like that came through within the novel.
Liam was such a well-crafted character, and I really enjoyed seeing their growth throughout the novel. I think something important to note is that he isn't perfect, and that's what makes them such a complex character. just because a character has flaws doesn't necessarily make them unlikable; it just makes them realistic, and I think Liam is a great example of this (aka don't hold characters to an unachievable standard and then fault them when they don't meet that...they're human lol). The side characters were also all complex, and Mason Deaver brought a lot of nuances into their characterization, making for very 3-d characters.
Also, there was great representation in this book! Most of the major characters were LGBTQ+, which was really nice to see :)
My only thing is that I wish we had more - specifically more development of Marcus and Liam's friendship, especially toward the end of the novel.
Other Info
Standalone
13+
CW: death of love oned (car accident), grief, PTSD, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, brief mention of vomit, self harm and suicide ideation, misgendering
Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-We-Keep-Mason-Deaver/dp/133859334X
Would I Recommend?
1000 times over.
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