Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Starred Review For the past five years, Denis Egan has lived in Port Haven with GeeGee (his great-grandmother), pleasantly passing time until they're permitted to enter Garden Hills, the soul's final destination. Being dead isn't bad, all things considered; memories of one's death are immediately forgotten, and other recollections fade until the person essentially does, too. Recently, though, Denis' afterlife has been disturbed by the voice of his still-living twin brother, Matt, who's calling for him with increasing urgency. On GeeGee's advice, Denis decides to pay Matt a visit. His return home is haunting in more ways than one, as he learns that his death at age seven was an unsolved murder that is tearing his family apart. Reunited with Matt, the two set about trying to crack the case, beginning with a trip to Gettysburg, where Denis' body was found. Abbott lays numerous plot threads in his complex novel as the boys search for clues and resurrect Denis' memories along the trail of his abduction. Rather than taking a sensational route, Abbott steadily guides readers through a dark quagmire of questions, anger, and fraying family bonds that are nevertheless held together by love. Surprising twists and turns braid the story's disparate parts into a revelatory whole that brings healing to its characters and won't be forgotten by its readers anytime soon.

Horn Book

Denis has been dead five years, but his family still can't move on. Although it's painful to try to remember the details of his kidnapping and death, Denis tears himself away from Port Haven (the afterlife) to help his twin brother, Matt, solve the mystery. This inventive and tautly written ghost story holds as much danger for the dead as it does for the living.

Kirkus Reviews

Denis returns from the afterlife to help his twin brother solve the mystery of how he died.Narrator Denis has been dead for 5 years. Because the sojourn in Port Haven, Denis' post-death residence since he was 7, is about letting go of the threads of life, backward from dying, Denis doesn't remember what happened to him. Denis' twin, Matt, now 12, has found their father's file on his brother's disappearance from an amusement park and the subsequent discovery of the boy's body at the Georgia monument in Gettysburg, and he wants answers: What happened to Denis? Denis—hoping to help his brother find peace—goes through "the razor," a frightening and painful process that allows the dead to visit the living. Together, with some help from Matt's best friend, Trey, they follow the few clues available to them, all the while navigating their parents' grief and distress. News of a car submerged in a quarry and a strange stalker add to the mystery, while red herrings, past violence and tragedies, and Denis' fragmented recollections intensify the challenge. The characters seem to be white. A great-uncle was gay, and Trey is someone whose gender Denis never figures out. Abbott keeps the tension high and the mystery dark and unsettling, leavening it with several flashes of humor and intriguing imaginative speculation about the dead. Page-turning. (Mystery/ghost story. 10-13)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Since his death at age seven, Denis has been living in Port Haven, where souls still remembered by the living go after they die. Denis-s twin, Matt, remembers Denis so vividly that Denis has continued to grow, unlike most of the Port Haven residents, who remain the age that they were upon their death and, once completely forgotten by the living, move on to Garden Hills. But Matt has just discovered the investigation surrounding Denis-s death, left purposefully unresolved by their father, who can-t seem to let Denis go. Matt becomes so obsessed with finding the killer that Denis must return to the land of the living (a painful but doable process) to help his family uncover the truth. Abbot (the Secrets of Droon series) blends a taut and twisted murder mystery with a profound reflection on grief and learning to move on. Denis comes to see the -thousand, thousand threads- that bind people and realizes that the powerful connections forged through love cannot be broken, even in death. Ages 8-12. Agent: Robert Guinsler, Sterling Lord Literistic. (July)