One Bloody Thing After Another

At turns heartwarming and horrifying, this strange and funny novel deals with the terror of losing one's family and the extreme measures people will take to hold on. Jackie and her crush, Ann, both have odd family situations: Jackie's mother, although dead from cancer, is a ghost that only Jackie can see, while Ann's mother and sister have turned into such violent creatures they need to be kept in the basement and fed living animals. Meanwhile, old man Charlie lives up the road with his blind dog in a building haunted by a headless ghost. Appealing to both adults and older teens, this dark, offbeat, and irreverent story is handled with both humor and honesty.