Grounded

Grounded
written by Kate Klise

This is definitely the darkest of Kate Klise's, and while I'm sure it'll have English teachers across the country salivating, I'm not a fan.  In the hands of these authors come some of my all-time favorites in epistolary format.  This book is written without the trademark letters and notes, and is your typical Language Arts class fodder, rife with the big questions, symbolism, and your good old token character death.  There are bits and pieces here and there that really are beautiful concepts, such as the brief discussions on grief, trauma, processing emotions, and post-traumatic stress, as well as the whole idea of 'living funerals', which is something I would personally love to see take off.  We so often don't get to tell our loved ones how much they matter until our love doesn't matter anymore.  I can think of all kinds of classroom discussions this book could launch, but as far as a fun read goes, nowhere near my first choice.  Overall, it's an okay book, but it lacks the spark of Klise's previous books.  Humor and quirk is what she does best.  I miss that so much.