You'd think a knife in the ribs would be the end of things, but for Chuy, that's when his life at last gets interesting. He finally sees that people love him, faces the consequences of his actions, finds in himself compassion and bravery . . . and even stumbles on what may be true love.A funny, touching, and wholly original story by one of the finest authors writing for young readers today. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Returning to the Mexican-American community which he has made a career of chronicling, Soto (Baseball in April) pens a sort of Lovely Bones for the young adult set: 17-year-old narrator Chuy is murdered on page two, for no good reason, in the restroom of a nightclub. Chuy's ghost roams his native Fresno, visiting Angel ("mi carnal, the guy I hung with") his would-be novia (girlfriend), his family, his school friends. In several compelling sequences, he comes face-to-face with his killer, and is shocked to see that the boy is completely without remorse. There is mention of revenge (Chuy's mother gives his cousin a gun), but Soto keeps that subplot brief, favoring instead a more thoughtful painting of what Chuy's departure means to those around him. Chuy also meets the ghost of a girl who has just committed suicide, and the two spirits begin to fall in love. In addition to this romance, Soto concocts an ingenious way of introducing tension to the story: Chuy's astral body is disappearing bit by bit, and as the tale ends, so too does the audience's knowledge of Chuy's ultimate destiny. While the premise could sound dark and morose, the novel is instead filled with hope and elegance. The author counterbalances difficult ideas with moments of genuine tenderness as well as a provocative lesson about the importance of savoring every moment-a lesson that Chuy, once fretful and insecure, comes to understand. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 6 Up-Soto's twist on the emerging subgenre of narratives in the vein of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones (Little, Brown, 2002) offers a compelling character in the person of 17-year-old Chuy, murdered in the men's room of a dance hall the evening he plans to connect with the girl of his heart's desire. Unfortunately for both Chuy and readers, what happens after death is that the teen's once engaged and engaging spirit seems to dissipate along with his "ghost body." He floats around Fresno, CA, making seemingly random sightings of his murderer, local kids, and-only after a couple of days and at a time when his ghost body is beginning to dissolve limb by limb-other ghosts. He finds a new heartthrob in the form of a teen who has committed suicide and is befriended by the wise ghost of a transient whose life he tried to save. Grieving friends and family unknowingly are visited by Chuy, and he is startled to discover that his mother wants violent revenge for his death. This plethora of plot lines wafts across and past the landscape of a narrative as lacking in developed form as Chuy finds himself becoming. After a strong start, The Afterlife seems to become a series of brief images that drift off as though in a dream. Soto's simple and poetic language, leavened with Mexican Spanish with such care to context that the appended glossary is scarcely needed, is clear, but Chuy's ultimate destiny isn't.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 7-10. Combing his hair in the dirty bathroom of a club where a dance is being held, 17-year-old Chuy makes the mistake of telling the rodent-faced guy next to him that he likes his shoes. The young man returns the compliment by stabbing Chuy to death. Where any other story would end, Soto's begins. It follows Chuy for several days after his death, as the teenager recounts what he sees and experiences. His parents grieve, and his mother asks a cousin to kill Chuy's assailant; then he goes to his high school's basketball game and sees the effect his death has had on his friends, realizing their sadness will be fleeting. He saves the life of a homeless man, albeit only temporarily, and improbably, he finds his first girlfriend, Crystal, a specter who died from an overdose. Crystal's character is not as well developed as Chuy's, but their relationship is beautifully evoked, with Chuy grasping every thread of love he can as he slowly disappears. Soto has remade Our Town into Fresno, California, and he not only paints the scenery brilliantly but also captures the pain that follows an early death. In many ways, this is as much a story about a hardscrabble place as it is about a boy who is murdered. Both pulse with life and will stay in memory. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2003 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.