Not Bad For A Death Book

Ryan's life has gone down the toilet since the death of his younger sister two years ago. He's numbed up on drugs that he gets from a sad but funny loser headed for trouble who has become his best friend. Everything starts to turn around, though, when Ryan becomes obsessed with a shallow, popular girl he barely knows after she becomes a coma patient in the hospital where his sister was treated for cancer.

That makes the book sound sappy, and it's not, though it does teeter on the brink of being one of those "learn-something-profound-from-death" stories. There's sly humor and likable characters here. Putting a teen queen stereotype into a coma is a neat idea. And I actually believed the basic premise, that this boy becomes obsessed with someone he barely knows who's hospitalized where a family member died. While trying not to give anything away, I particularly like how things turn out for her. I also thought the parents were treated both realistically and sympathetically, which is always unique in a teen novel.

So, all in all, Deadville by Ron Koertge is a good read.