Customer Reviews

Dead on Town Line

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In this story told in free verse, the reader begins with the chilling revelation that the 16-year-old narrator, Cassie, is dead. She watches the dogs search for her, but her body is well hidden. She recollects, bit by bit, the details of her murder. As the searchers walk the grid looking for clues to her disappearance, Cassie muses about her associations with them. She worries over the loved ones she's left behind, particularly her mother and her boyfriend, Kyle. Cassie also recalls uncomfortable interactions with the needy and mean Gail Sherman, now walking the grid. Then Cassie poignantly remembers her choice to delay making love with Kyle because she felt they had all the time in the world. Now that chance is forever gone.

Cassie realizes that she can't leave yet to go on to what's beyond; she still has something she must do here first. She contemplates death as well as some surprises --- such as her sudden knowledge that she can affect matter by swaying tree branches or tumbling a leaf. However, her biggest revelation is that she's not alone. Another dead girl, Birdie, keeps Cassie company as they share stories about their lives. Birdie, too, feels that she can't quite leave for the next world.

DEAD ON TOWN LINE invites comparisons with THE LOVELY BONES in subject matter, and yet is completely unlike it in style. The verses are spare and lovely, depicting Cassie's love for music and despair over her many losses. Some of the images, of murder and of what happens to a body after death, are fleetingly brutal but appropriate. The depiction of Cassie's death is heartbreaking and chilling, yet leaves the reader with an uplifting hope. It was impossible to stop reading Cassie's highly original story, and I found the ending to be poignant and memorable.

[...]

I loved this book. Loved the story of these two women bonding in an unlikely way-- killed in the same place, many years apart -- learning together what it is to be dead, and trying to find a way to get on to "the next."


"I threw my brand-new ghost
At that body --
My body.
Wanted to

GET

BACK

IN.

Wanted to slide my soul
Back down into those fingertips.
But it was all closed up --
My vessel,
My wreck.

I had to lower the rating on this book, not because it wasn't a good story (it's a very beautiful, poignant one) or because of the style of the writing (the book is written in free verse). I did it because, after buying a hardcover book, it took me fifteen minutes to read it.

Cassie Devlin lived a pretty good life--a loving mother, friends at school, a wonderful boyfriend named Kyle, outstanding ability to write music and play the piano, and a group of like-wise minded musical players at school called Composer's Workshop. Everything was wonderful, until Gail Sherman entered and world and, ultimately, ended her life.

DEAD ON TOWN LINE is a hauntingly beautiful story, tellling the story of Cassie's death and how she realizes that being dead doesn't mean you're finished with things here on Earth. She meets another young girl like herself there in the in-between, and together they work to right the wrongs that have been done to them.

Today, at Books-A-Million, I spotted a wonderful discount shelf with really cheap YA Fiction. I was pumped, but I only had a couple bucks :( However, I was able to pick up one book for only a buck! I was so pumped. The book was small, but the cover drew me in. I love it. And what drew me even more was that when I opened it, I found that it was in verse! I love books in verse, if you didn't know that yet. It was short, and I knew that since it was in verse, it would be a verrrry 'quick read for me. (It's about 131 pages, and I read it on the trip from Branson to Springfield, MO, if that shows you anything.)

The book starts with a dead girl who has been murdered.

She's the narrator, and she's in a post-death state. Aparrently, if you die, you don't move on to the Next unless they find the body. Huh.

Although I don't necessarily agree with the post-life ideas that this book had, I can look past that. It was an interesting enough idea, I guess. It's kind of like purgatory that you can't control.

She meets a lady who shares the tale of her dark death in a voice that was hard to get used to at first. Later, I liked the voice because it was unique.

Leslie Connor has written a great book. I could read it over and over again, like To Kill a Mockingbird.

This was really quick read, reminiscent of Lovely Bones and The Bright Forever with it's murdered child themes. Creative format made this really interesting, I liked the imagery of leaves and music and their incorporation into the plot. I do not think that the format is very teen friendly, but this is well written, interesting book. Good Read.

Leslie Connor's novel in free verse unfolds with such a skillful telling of this haunting tale. I felt chills as I read it. There are images that will always stay with me: Cassie, the dead girl, learning that she can move a leaf with her mind; the heartbreaking sadness of seeing her mother weeping over the piano; and the connection that Cassie makes with Birdie, who died so long ago and teaches her about the unseen world. Despite being about someone so young who has died, this novel is not about despair. Connor has managed to write a story that is uplifting and filled with the joy of living. My daughters and I could not stop talking about this story!