Review: The Girl Who Came Back to Life by Craig Staufenberg (Tour Stop)

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A book about love and loss, and how to live in a world filled with both...

When you die, your spirit wakes in the north, in the City of the Dead. There, you wander the cold until one of your living loved ones finds you, says "Goodbye," and Sends you to the next world.

After her parents die, 12-year-old Sophie refuses to release their spirits. Instead, she resolves to travel to the City of the Dead to bring her mother and father's spirits back home with her.

Taking the long pilgrimage north with her gruff & distant grandmother-by train, by foot, by boat; over ruined mountains and plains and oceans-Sophie struggles to return what death stole from her. Yet the journey offers her many hard, unexpected lessons-what to hold on to, when to let go, and who she must truly bring back to life.

 

 

 

 

 
Craig Staufenberg is a writer and filmmaker living in NYC.

Website: http://craigstaufenberg.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/YouMakeArtDumb
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com
/YouMakeArtDumb
Google+: https://plus.google.com
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My Rating

 

4

My Review

I don't always get drawn to Middle Grade titles, but I couldn't help myself with The Girl Who Came Back to Life. Not only do I love the cover (I know, I know, but it really does fit the way I feel about the book as well) but the concept grasped my attention as well. I was even more pleasantly surprised than expected when it came to this novel. It transported me into a new world that felt magical and truly in the spirit of the Fairytales I read in my younger years. It keeps that tradition and style while still maintaining a story that is refreshingly new.

Staufenberg crafts a world that pulled me in from the very beginning and didn't let me go until the end. It has that perfect amount of darkness in the tone that still allows the book to have a considerably light feeling. I was sucked into the life, and the death, of the story. Reading the novel is an adventure in itself, one that I took along with Sophie to the North. The setting felt very cinematic to me, and I enjoyed being able to visualize the concept.

I loved the concept of Sending the loved ones off, just as I loved Sophie's determination to avoid doing so with her one parents. Her unwillingness to let go was admirable and realistic, as most of us who have suffered a painful loss have felt the same way at some point. She was very mature for her age, although that worked well with her characterization. The relationship between Sophie and her grandmother was also intriguing to read about, given it isn't what all readers may expect.

All in all, I found The Girl Who Came Back to Life to be a very enjoyable read. The narrator allows us a good inside into this new world, which an authentic feel of a Fairytale. I recommend the work, and would definitely read more from this author in the future.