My Last Kiss by Bethany Neal is part of the BooksSparks Summer Reading Challenge 2014.
Immediately, Bethany Neal's YA novel, My Last Kiss, took me back to reading The Lovely Bones over a decade ago. The book opens with a dead teenage narrator, Cassidy, who died three days after her seventeenth birthday. She cannot remember what happened to her, and cannot understand why she is still tied to the earth. Only one human can see her, and no one from "the other side" shows up to guide her entry into the spirit world, so Cassidy is basically left alone to unravel the mystery of her death. Was it suicide; could she have actually jumped from an icy bridge to the rocks and river below at her birthday party? But wait--who was the person on the bridge with her in her last moments? Did someone close to her betray her? What is she not remembering?
The story in My Last Kiss jumps between the present and some pivotal moments over Cassidy's last few days; as she says, it is not so much that she is recalling what happened but that she is actually reliving things like the afternoon spent in a basement with someone who is not her boyfriend, or chatting with her closest friends. Cassidy, trying to understand what is happening, mentions how spirits that do not leave right away usually have some unfinished business to take care of, related to the day they died, and that is certainly true here.
There are some heartbreaking scenes as Cassidy witness her dad identify her body at the morgue, and her little sister refuse to leave Cassidy's room. In some parts, My Last Kiss is like the movie Ghost, as Cassidy tries to move physical matter and connect with those she loves. If you have ever thought you would love to be the proverbial fly on the wall and overhear conversations, this book might make you think twice about that, as what Cassidy learns about the people closest to her makes her wonder if she ever really knew them at all, and if anyone can be trusted.
My Last Kiss is Bethany Neal's debut novel, and you can find out more about her here. She has worked as an interior designer, photographer, and teacher's assistant, but something tells me that "author" will be her final career.
One final note: When you get to the final 100 pages of My Last Kiss, you are not going to want to put it down. Clear your schedule, make some coffee, and enjoy solving the mystery of Cassidy's last kiss.
