And the River Drags Her Down

This fabulistic story combined a tale of a young woman's incredible grief with a kind of out-of-left-field, unanticipated suspense/mystery. At least, *I* wasn't expecting the mystery element (and I usually am!). The combination of stories and perspectives worked together surprisingly well and was greater than the sum of its parts. A very on point novel for anyone looking for something spooky, but also a meditation on family, love, and grief, a celebration of Korean-American culture, and an exploration of the experience of being a visible minority in a small American town.

"She was a victim to her own yearning and she let that yearning destroy her."

A year after her sister drowns, Soojin is still struggling. She can't connect to her father, she pushed away everyone she knew, and her mother who she would've turned to for comfort died years ago. She's alone. But Soojin also has a secret gift: she can resurrect the dead. She was warned not to resurrect people, that there's a cost to bringing back those who should've moved on. But grief is strong and sometimes there is only one person who can help pull you out of that void.

I believe that you can't write off books based on their age categorization because if a book is good, it should have a level of appeal to that age range and older. This is prime example of show more that. Jihyun Yun knocks it out of the park balancing very complex and heavy topics such as grief, death, and parentification with YA things you've come to recognize such as struggling in school, friendships and potential romances, and being forced to know your future when you're only in high school.

Soojin as the main character and one of the "perspectives" in the story helped keep the emotional plot moving when it could've stagnated. While I kept getting frustrated with her actions, I also understood exactly where she was coming from. Her loneliness and despair were palpable throughout the novel. The decision to jump between character's perspectives was also a good choice. I think if we only followed Soojin we would've lost a lot of the nuance needed for this story. One of these perspectives is Mark, Soojin's childhood friend. It could've fallen into some boring storylines but his determination to help Soojin didn't feel contrived or that it was only there because we needed her to have some romantic tension.

Speaking of other characters, we have to talk about Mirae her older sister. There was a direction this story could've gone which would've made it fall flat. It could've been dull and simplistic, but it felt as if Yun knew that and said, no let me show you something else. Mirae was honestly my favorite of the two (I know, you're not supposed to have a favorite sibling) but when she comes back from the dead and we get to see the events unfold from her eyes, it wasn't just tragic but emotionally charged in a way that you want to hug her forever.

To boil of this down, yes, you should read this when it comes out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. show less

DNF 8%