Slipping
Michael will be the first one to tell you: he barely knew his grandpa Kimmel when he was alive. And he didn’t know the details about the big fight between his dad and his grandpa that made the whole family stop visiting seven years ago. And if you never really knew someone, and nobody ever talks about him, then you probably won’t miss him when he’s gone, right?
But when his grandpa dies, Michael’s gut tells him that the cold, detached way his dad is acting isn’t normal. Just like Michael recognizes that his own bizarre cravings for things like oatmeal and creamed spinach and a nice big cigar aren’t normal either. Michael suspects that his grandpa Kimmel might be reaching out to him–or through him. But figuring out what his grandpa wants is a scary thought, as it will require getting to know a man who was impossible to talk to when he was alive. As Michael begins to slip with his grandpa into the mysterious river that seems to flow between the living and the dead, an even scarier thought occurs: if Michael can’t get out again, will anyone miss him?
“Bell’s spare prose evokes a tightly wound family, and elegantly renders the world from Michael’s gloomy, nescient point of view. …[T]he story succeeds in that its paranormal dynamics echo the real world’s. Breaks between father and son, parent and child, do play out in the next generation. Families really are haunted by the past, in a way that houses are not.” – Scott Westerfeld, Publishers Weekly
“Bell creates genuinely creepy and surreal scenes as Michael psychically journeys among the dead, and she anchors the fantasy elements with well-wrought scenes of unresolved family conflicts. The balance between the supernatural and genuine human feelings creates a compelling mix.” – Booklist