I had no idea this was a sequel.  I also had no idea that it was a spinoff of Harlan Coben's adult series.  I picked it up and started reading, and was tossed into the middle of a story I didn't know anything about. Seconds Away picks up immediately after the events of the first book, Shelter.  Mickey Bolitar finds himself in the home of an apparently crazy old lady who informs him that his dead father is not in fact dead, and that the paramedic that supposedly helped them is in fact a Nazi from 80 years ago, unaged.

I didn't immediately understand any of this, but the story is well recapped so I got the gist of the previous book.  Mickey and his outcast friends saved another classmate from a terrible situation, but it left the town and his new school under the impression that he was a troublemaking bad kid. 

Now an even sorrier situation comes up: the most popular, prettiest girl in the school (who incidentally helped Mickey out in the previous installment) is now in hospital, having been shot.  Her mother was murdered in the same incident.  Mickey is determined to get to the bottom of this. 

Also, he's trying to make the school basketball team.  Priorities, you know?

Seconds Away feels forced, almost as if the author was holding back in the name of writing for teens.  That said, it's still pretty page-turney.  You can pick it up without having read the first book or the adult series and still get a good idea of what's going on. This is probably best suited to kids who are reasonably advanced readers but are still maybe a little too young for more mature sex and violence.  Make no mistake, there is murder here, but nothing graphic.

Thanks for dropping by our blog for The Dead I Know blog tour.

The Dead I Know reminds me a bit of I Am Not a Serial Killer.  Both are young men working in a mortuary with the dead.  Both are lonely, troubled youth, though with different problems.  Both have peculiar home lives.  Neither was what I expected, and for both books that's where the problem lies.  I expected a bit of supernatural story in this one.

Aaron feels like he doesn't quite fit in the world.  He lives in a trailer park with Mam, but wakes up in random places.  He has terrible, recurring nightmares.  And now, he has a job in a mortuary. But with the owner and caretaker John showing him the ropes and helping him get through the stress of dealing with mourning families, Aaron gradually finds that he likes the work, and even comes to discover that maybe he doesn't have to bury his personal life so deeply.

Ultimately, it's hard to tell what this book is about.  For me, it was a story about overcoming your past and finding your place in the world despite that past.  Aaron suffered terribly, and never really had a chance to deal with it emotionally.  The nature of his early experiences are really terrible, though, and that's what confused me about the story.  For the sake of the story being told, did it need to be so rough?

Having said all that, the nature of working with the dead as a funeral director is a good draw.  There's the potential for gruesome imagery and the possibility of some morbid humor.  Whether it actually happens or not is irrelevant; the mere possibility is a selling point, especially for young guys who might otherwise avoid a story like this one about emotional self-discovery.

The Dead I Know is well-suited for book reports.  It's not too long, has a troubled character, and a dark secret that stays secret to the even the reader deep into the story.

Thank you Penguin Canada for providing us with the preview copy of The Dead I Know.

I was totally mislead by the old-timey photo cover. I didn't know what to expect of the book, and as the story got weirder and weirder, I was like, "wait a second, this book sounds like the X-Men! (or maybe it's because I just watched X-Men: First Class)"  And if I have looked more closely at the cover, I would have noticed that the girl in the photo was levitating. That would have given me a clue.  Anyway... it's a super interesting book, with great photos like the one on the cover that make the story all the more eerie.
Since Jacob was small, his grandfather had told him about the island, the safe haven where he grew up, alongside with many other children who could do extraordinary things. His grandfather would take out the strange photos and show Jacob one by one, recalling the fond memories of the girl whom they had to hold down to prevent her from floating away, the twins who could lift very heavy things, the girl who could make fire with her hands, the boy with bees in his stomach, and so on and so forth. It was all fascinating to Jacob, but as Jacob got older though, he could see the implausibility of his grandfather's stories. He could see the amateur manipulation of the photos. And he was mad. He was mad because he loved his grandfather so much and he so wanted to believe his stories.  Just before he died from a strange attack by some sort of wild animal in the woods behind his house, his grandfather called Jacob and urged him to go to the island and find the "bird" and this mysterious letter.  Jacob was torn. He wanted to respect his grandfather's last wish, but on the other hand, he feared he'd get confirmation that everything his grandfather told him was a lie. 
Stories about kids with strange powers are pretty common, but it's the setting and the way the author set it up against a historical period that makes this really intriguing.  I was definitely not expecting where the author took the book. Love it!
The book is being sold as a teen book, but it feels a bit like an adult book with kids in it. It's thoroughly enjoyable, and I think Fox has already bought the movie rights to this. Go see the creepy photos, and check out the book trailer here.