The Skinjacker Series by Neal Shusterman

Generally when I read a series, I can wait to read each book as I come across it because I have a huge to-be-read bookcase that contains almost 600 books, but I loved the Skinjacker series so much that I read them one after the other all in a week.

I had book one, Everlost and book two, Everwild, but I borrowed book three, Everfound from my neighbor, Michelle.

This series has a premise that I have not seen before. The series begins with Nick and Allie in two separate cars that collide. They do not survive the accident, but their souls while headed to the tunnel of light crash into each other and they get lost between life and death.

They must learn to navigate a world that wants to suck them down into its center. They must battle other souls that are stuck in Everlost. They meet Mary Hightower, a ghostly writer and self proclaimed queen of the lost kids. They also must face the deadly monster McGill.

After a good start, book two continues the story and Shusterman writes an excellent second book. His third book doesn't disappoint and is as good as the other two books. All the threads come together in the third book. All the players must find a way to stop the complete destruction of every living thing on earth. It is a fight to the finish with those alive on earth facing an enemy they cannot see. It is hard to tell who is good and who is bad, and as is common in all people, both good and bad reside inside all.

The characters are well rounded and despite being ghosts are well fleshed out. :) The ghosts are all children and teenagers, so their emotional development is often stuck at one age or another. They are trying to make sense of a world that no longer makes sense while trying to hang on to their memories in a world that makes it easy to forget. This is the best series I've read in a while and it will keep the reader turning pages late into the night.

Angie, I think Isaac would like this series.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.