Friday, January 19, 2018

The Raising by Laura Kasischke (2011)

Compulsively readable novel about a boy returning to college after being involved in an accident that killed his girlfriend. 

But here's the weird thing: he keeps seeing glimmers of her around campus and his memory of the crash still hasn't returned. Kasischke skillfully weaves together chapters from the present with chapters from the year leading up to the accident. Eventually the threads meet in such a way that I may have actually gasped out loud. 

Beautifully written, suspenseful, and unbelievably absorbing. I liked this so much I sought out the rest of Kasischke's novels and read them all. I love the moody, thoughtful, elegiac, but spooky tone of her novels. See also her YA novels Feathered and Boy Heaven.