The Waiting Place (Megan Jacobson, Lothian)

Traversing the afterlife is an uncommon subgenre in the YA space, making The Waiting Place by Megan Jacobson (Yellow, Big Love) a unique foray.

Emily is a sheltered 16-year-old raised in an isolated, controlling religious sect in remote Florida. Education is by sect leaders, science is heresy, and girls are married off at 18. Her older half-sister, Sarah, who fled years ago, has suddenly returned pregnant. Before Emily can parse her feelings, the sisters and their father are killed in a car crash. Emily finds herself in the afterlife with flying angels herding the dead onto trains for “sorting”. Fearful of “sinful” Sarah being sent to hell, Emily bands together with two other recently deceased teens to alter fate.

What follows is an offbeat yet cheerful adventure through their limbo world, as the trio aim to tie up loose ends for their grieving families. They encounter frivolity in a mall, a farcical, bloodthirsty murderer and lessons in poltergeisting. While the novel’s tone might seem at odds with the subject matter, the overarching themes are ultimately kindness over anger, overcoming adversity, and accepting people who are different from you.

Emily’s haphazard journey towards finding in death the agency she lacked in life culminates in a saccharine epilogue. The guileless narration in The Waiting Place may appeal more to readers aged 12 to 14, or fans of Krystal Sutherland, than to older teen readers.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Marissa Kyriakopoulos lives in Naarm and is an osteopath, bookseller and freelance proofreader. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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