The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried

December 1, 2018
When death stops working, avoiding a dead ex-best friend becomes impossible.Dino DeLuca and July Cooper were best friends. Then Dino started dating perfect--and perfectly handsome--Rafi Merza, and their duet dissolved, an end punctuated by July's unexpected death. Kind of. As Dino is grieving privately by her corpse (the DeLuca's have a funeral home), July wakes up from death as vocal as ever. Tandem with trying to keep her revenant status secret is analyzing why their once strong pact devolved into dislike. His answer: her jealousy. Her answer: his boyfriend. The truth: somewhere in the middle. Rafi is trans and has a group of friends diverse in ethnicity and sexual orientation who school brash, brassy July on sensitivities to marginalized people (her struggle with being labeled without nuance as "dead" lightheartedly mirrors that of the LGBTQ+ community). The quasi-linear overlap of Dino's and July's narratives demonstrates the difficulty in finding the reality between the two sides. Their voices (him: think the dry intellect of Juno circa 2007, her: the audience who rolled their eyes at Juno circa 2007) are as distinctly different as their perceived versions of the truth. Dino and July are both white, while Rafi is of Pakistani descent. The explanation of why deaths cease is underdeveloped but doesn't stop this from being a decent romp. Unfortunately for Dino, Rafi outranks him in narrative allure.The dissection of a fractured friendship with a pretty fun post-mortem. (Fiction. 14-18)

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March 1, 2019
Around the time Dino DeLuca started falling for his first boyfriend, Rafi (who is trans), Dino and his longtime best friend July Cooper became ex-best friends. Now, a year later, July has unexpectedly died of a brain aneurysm. Dino, working in his family's mortuary, is dressing her body for the funeral when he gets a shock: July inexplicably comes back to life. The two teens attempt to figure out how and why this has happened and what they can do to reverse it (July is still very much a corpse, and her body is slowly putrefying). But more importantly, their time together gives them the opportunity to resolve the issues that led to the demise of their friendship. Dino and July are complex characters, and their easy banter is witty, philosophical, and engaging. Ultimately, July pushes Dino to be more honest with himself, with his parents, and with Rafi, even as she herself prepares for the finality of death. In addition to pithy dialogue, multifaceted LGBTQ+ characters, and a well-realized South Florida setting, this story features the same blend of speculative fiction, existential dread, morbid fascination with death and mortality, and surrealism that can be found in Hutchinson's previous novels (We Are the Ants; At the Edge of the Universe; The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza, rev. 3/18). jonathan hunt

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from October 15, 2018
Grades 8-12 *Starred Review* Get ready, because Hutchinson (The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza?, 2018) is going to knock your socks off with this new, deliciously bizarre novel. Dino's parents own a funeral home, so being around dead bodies isn't exactly unusual for him. But when his ex-best friend July dies suddenly and shows up in his basement, it isn't the fact that she's dead that shocks him but rather the fact that she suddenly wakes up! As the two do their best to figure out what is going on, they embark on a journey to confront their combined past and their future apart. However, the longer they spend trying to uncover the mystery of July's reanimation, the fishier things begin to smell?literally. Readers will find themselves captivated both by Dino and July's complicated history and even more complex present, as well as Dino's own journey of self-discovery. In the midst of everything else, Dino and his boyfriend?a sweet, funny, and supportive trans guy?navigate their own relationship against the backdrop of chaos July has brought down into their lives. Gender, sexuality, friendship, life, and death are all sensitively explored in Hutchinson's surreal, fresh narrative. His intelligent writing will seduce readers with its complex and spunky characters, lively dialogue, offbeat humor, and emotional depth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from February 1, 2019

Gr 8 Up-A brain aneurysm killed July Cooper, but it can't destroy her bond with Dino DeLuca. July rises from the dead at the funeral home owned by Dino's family, and though the two teens had been on the outs for the past year, they are drawn together as they attempt to conceal July's reanimation. What ensues is messy. July's body is slowly rotting, and the two trade barbed words while untangling why their friendship ended after Dino met his boyfriend, Rafi. Once again, Hutchinson defies genres. This isn't a ghost story, and July isn't a zombie, as she frequently points out. But she can't eat, she has no heartbeat, and until she's finally laid to rest, nobody else can die. This inventive take on the life-after-death narrative ponders profound truths. It's the ones who love us the most who can inflict the deepest wounds and hold us back, but even bitter fights can't extinguish some connections. Like typical adolescents, uncertain Dino and snarky July seem wise beyond their years one moment and maddeningly immature the next, and their journeys to self-discovery will resonate with readers. VERDICT A grotesque, mordantly funny, and tender look at friendship, for fans of Aaron Starmer's Spontaneous and Adam Silvera's They Both Die at the End.-Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2019
As Dino started falling for his first boyfriend, Rafi (who is trans), he became exbest friends with July. After July unexpectedly dies of a brain aneurysm, Dino gets a shock in his family's mortuary: July's corpse inexplicably comes back to life. Dino and July are complex characters; their easy banter is witty, philosophical, and engaging as Hutchinson's story blends speculative fiction, existential dread, morbid fascination with death, and surrealism.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)