The Yomigaeri Tunnel

Eighteen-year-old Monika feels adrift. Her best friend is moving to New York City for college, and only Monika seems shaken by classmate Shun’s recent death. During the school’s Japanese Club’s farewell get-together, Monika learns about the legend of the Yomigaeri Tunnel and its ability to resurrect the dead. She sets out to enter the tunnel, and when she arrives, Monika meets Shiori, a surly teen from another school intending to revive her own mother. The duo ventures into the underpass as reluctant companions. But when they’re separated in the dark, Monika plummets into a memory of the first time she saw Shun, setting into motion a series of events in which both girls encounter past recollections and new confrontations in ethereal visions—conjured by the tunnel—that challenge their self-perceptions and reveal uncomfortable truths. With empathy and insight, Murashige (The Lost Souls of Benzaiten) presents nuanced discussions around emotional abuse and substance reliance, and depicts the characters’ experiences navigating loss and grief as they search for the space to grow and heal. Chapters open with a spoof on high school yearbook superlatives (“most addicted to slushies,” “best stalker”), highlighting Monika’s off-beat humor and acerbic first-person narration. Most characters are of East Asian heritage. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kate Testerman, KT Literary. (July)