future life

Seventeen-year-old Julie fell in love with Sam the day she met him, and planned to attend college with him; but then Sam died. Getting rid of his things and trying to erase him from her life is not working, so, desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls his cell phone. She expects to hear his voicemail--but then Sam answers, and suddenly their phones become the living connection between them, a connection Julie finds impossible to let go.

"For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon at the New England home he shared with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. "It's okay," his father said. "There's nothing to be scared of. I'll take care of you." That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived. This experience spurred Junger--a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical--to undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die. How do we begin to process the brutal fact that any of us might perish unexpectedly on what begins as an ordinary day? How do we grapple with phenomena that science may be unable to explain? And what happens to a person, emotionally and spiritually, when forced to reckon with such existential questions?"-- Provided by publisher.

"When you grow up in a funeral home, death is just another part of life. But for sixteen-year-old Jaxon Santiago-Noble, it's also part of his family's legacy. Most dead bodies in the town of Jacob's Barrow wind up at Jaxon's house; his mom is the local mortician, after all. He doesn't usually pay them much mind, but when Christian Reyes is brought in after a car accident, Jaxon's world is turned upside down. There are a lot of things Jaxon wishes he could have said to his once best friend and first crush. When he accidentally resurrects Christian, Jaxon might finally have that chance. But the more he learns about his newfound necromancy, the more he grasps that Christian's running on borrowed time--and it's almost out. As he navigates dark, mysterious magics and family secrets, Jaxon realizes that stepping into an inherited power may also mean opening up old family wounds if he wants to keep the boy he may be falling for alive for good"--Provided by publisher.

"Before he can be reborn, Zan has spent 499 years bound in a 500-year curse to process souls for the monstrous Ferryman--and if he fails he dies. In Portland, Bastian is grieving. He survived a car accident that took his mother and impulse-purchased a crumbling bookstore with the life insurance money. But in sleep, death's mark keeps dragging Bastian into Zan's office. It shouldn't be a problem to log his soul and forget he ever existed. But when Zan follows Bastian through his memories of grief and hope, Zan realizes that he is not ready for Bastian to die. The boys borrow time hiding in the memories of the dead while the Ferryman hunts them, and Zan must decide if he's willing to give up his chance at life to save Bastian--and Bastian must decide if he's willing to keep living if it means losing Zan"--Provided by publisher.

Deceased sixteen-year-old Tegan is appalled to discover that heaven is a replica of the motel where she spent the worst weekend of her life, and her only hope is for Zelda, the teen angel responsible for the supposed error, to explore Tegan's memories and unearth her true happiest moment.

Two deceased teens find themselves together in a white room--one that exists outside of time and space, allows them to communicate with their families, and ultimately reveals an unexpected connection between their lives and deaths.

"Twelve-year-old Kwame Powell isn't ready to deal with losing his grandmother, even as he and his family head to Ghana for her celebration of life. He's definitely not ready when he's sucked into a magical whirlpool that leads straight to Asamando, the Ghanaian underworld. There, he comes face-to-face with his grandmother, who is very much alive, and somehow just . . . a kid? Together with his best friend, Autumn, and a chattery aboatia named Woo, Kwame sets off to battle angry nature gods and stop the underworld from destroying the land of the living. But there's an even bigger problem: living souls can't stay in Asamando for long. In order to save the mortal world and return home, Kwame must find the courage to do the bravest thing of all--learn how to say goodbye"--Provided by publisher.

"Salem Amani is a world-weary sixteen-year-old living with his mother and older sister in a haunted house. But all Sal really wants is to be ordinary, which is hard to do when you live in a house full of ghosts. And when a strange boy arrives on his doorstep asking more questions than he's at all comfortable with, Sal's efforts to be ordinary are put under even greater strain. Until Pax makes his offer: 'I could help you with the hauntings. . .I'm good with ghosts.' But despite his initial dislike of Pax, Sal can't help but find himself unexpectedly drawn to the boy. And as the two grow closer, and Pax offers to help Sal scare away his ghosts for good, Sal finds himself sinking deeper into a lie concealing the truth about his family. When the true nature of the "hauntings" is revealed, Sal must confront reality--or risk losing Pax for good"--Provided by publisher.

"Throughout history, the nature and mystery of death has captivated artists, scientists, philosophers, physicians, and theologians. This ... chronology ventures right to the borderlines of science and sheds light into the darkness. Here, topics as wide ranging as the Maya death gods, golems, and s?ances sit side by side with entries on zombies and quantum immortality. With the turn of every page, readers will encounter ... artwork, along with ... insights about death and what may lie beyond"--Publisher's description.

Twelve-year-old Cuban American Benny must help the ghost of his rich, famous, and morally bankrupt musician grandfather cross over to the other side before the New Year's Eve deadline.