Goodbye and Everything After

When a grieving Chinese Filipino youth encounters a literal ghost from her past, she resolves to make him to stay in the living world in this unfiltered exploration of loss by Coyiuto (Chloe and the Kaishao Boys). It’s been five years since now-17-year-old Nika’s father died, and Nika feels that she and her family have never processed their grief, particularly because Nika’s mother and older sister, Jackie, refuse to talk about vivacious, music-loving Pa except on his death anniversary. Recently, Jackie has been focused on helping to plan their mother’s upcoming wedding to the family’s longtime dentist, Dr. Derrick. The adults’ relationship has always bothered Nika, so when Dr. Derrick shows up at Pa’s yearly memorial, the teen walks out and breaks a Filipino superstition of never going directly home after attending a funeral. The next day, Nika is confronted by her father’s ghost. Realizing she’s the only one who can see him, Nika takes advantage of their time together by reconnecting over old memories; she soon discovers that the more they reminisce, the more corporeal Pa becomes. Clear and touching text renders the family’s unabashed vulnerability while references to pinoy culture and superstition, as well as Filipino banter in Tagalog and Hokkein, suffuse a novel that gracefully explores the nonlinear progression of grief and moving on. A glossary concludes. Ages 13–up. (Feb.)