Somewhere Between Life and Death

Erin Bennett #1

by Lurlene McDaniel

The celebration isn't supposed to end in tragedy. The night of their high-school drama group's cast party starts out as fun for sisters Amy and Erin.
Their lives come crashing down when Amy takes the car to get more food and has a horrible accident. Erin and her family pray for Amy to awaken from her coma. But as the monitor bleeps and the respirator hisses, Amy lies somewhere between life and death.
Erin and her parents must find the courage to accept the fact that Amy's life-support system will never bring her back. When she dies, can the family give some meaning to her senseless death? Can Amy's dying become the hope for someone else's living?

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Childrens, Romance, Young Adult Contemporary

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1990

About the author

Lurlene McDaniel (born c. 1948) is an author who has written over 50 young adult books. She is well known for writing about characters struggling with chronic and terminal illnesses, such as cancer, diabetes, and organ failure.


Other places to find her are...
https://www.facebook.com/lurlenemcdan...
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/aut...
http://www.youtube.com/user/LurleneMc

Reviews

[Maeve MacDonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

just a bit predictable 🤷‍♀️

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Title: Somewhere Between Life and Death
Author: Lurlene McDaniel
Series: Erin Bennett, 1
Format: ebook
Length: 266 pages
Rating: 2.5 stars

Synopsis:
The celebration isn't supposed to end in tragedy. The night of their high-school drama group's cast party starts out as fun for sisters Amy and Erin.
Their lives come crashing down when Amy takes the car to get more food and has a horrible accident. Erin and her family pray for Amy to awaken from her coma. But as the monitor bleeps and the respirator hisses, Amy lies somewhere between life and death.
Erin and her parents must find the courage to accept the fact that Amy's life-support system will never bring her back. When she dies, can the family give some meaning to her senseless death? Can Amy's dying become the hope for someone else's living?

Favourite character: Shara
Least favourite character: Erin

Mini-review:
I struggled with this book. Erin didn't feel like a believable 17 year old and before you argue that everyone deals differently with grief, it wasn't just that. She was insufferable and unbelievable before her sister's accident. The author made her character appear stupid just to explain things to her younger audience, which to me is lazy. Will probably read the second book just to see where the whole thing goes.

Fan-cast:
Erin Bennett - Lili Reinhart
Amy Bennett - Joey King
Travis Sinclair - Noah Centineo
Shara Perez - Victoria Justice
Mrs. Bennett - Connie Neilson
Mr. Bennett - Dermot Mulroney
Beth Clark - Madison Davenport
David - Jacob Latimore

[Saundra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere Between Life and Death Death/Sisters/Family
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
I like to call this book "the Babysitter's Club book of Dying Teenagers". The focus of the novel is not so much character development or plot but how the death of a family member. Two sisters, Amy and Erin, are at a dance recital one night when Amy, who has just gotten her license, goes out for more sodas. She gets in a car accident and ends up in a coma in intensive care. Now Erin must deal with the tragedy and the feelings she has for her younger sister. This book wasn't too badly written, but it was definitely more on the basic side of technique and talent. The writing was aimed more at getting a visceral reaction from the reader than anything else. It did that, but it was also very predictable and somewhat clichéd. I could see teenage girls liking this book however, so I don't think it should be discounted entirely, but it is definitely one of those books you want to use a stepping stone, not the final object.

[Kailia]

Why was I surprised when this story turned out to have such a sad topic. The book begins off really nice and light. I can tell that Erin is bugged by her sister at times but she loves Amy. Erin can't help but feel some of the things she feels but when everything ends in tragedy, Erin is heartbroken.

For the longest time, she blames her sister's death on herself. If only she'd done this or if only she'd done that. This book is not for the faint of heart because there's a lot of gory and sadness and anger in this book. I got a good feel of what it must be like to lose someone we love.

Somethings did get better but it was all so sad. Overall, I felt really bad for Erin. She's had so much going on and her sister's death didn't make anything better.

[Melenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved these books as a child

[Stacy Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

So shouldn’t have finished this book while in a Graves induced depression lol.

This book was a very good insight into how teenagers deal with tragedies and what follows them.

Organ donation is a very special topic for me. I believe everyone should be a donor if it can prolong or make someone’s life better and more normal why wouldn’t you do this one selfless last act??

If people would take their heads out of their butts and look at all the good they could do for others I think the world just may be a decent place again.

I urge everyone to become a organ donor. Sign up today for tomorrow is never promised to anyone.

[Jim Gleason · Rating 4 out of 5]

a novel involving teen dealing with a sister's acceptance of brain death and organ donation of her sibling.

see this and more than a hundred other organ donation/transplant related books - many with my personal reviews - at http://www.trioweb.org/resources/book...

[Rosario Juarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was in jr high, for one of my classes. I loved it then, and I still love this book. I loved the characters and the way the story was written. When there is a tragic accident, Erin and her family must make some difficult dessions, that will effect them all..

[Sarah Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sister in a coma, eventually dies.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Lurlene McDaniel book, but it was still good.

[Hil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could cry just thinking about this. Me and my sister read this together aloud at night, a few chapters a night and i can feel that sadness i felt just by looking at the cover

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author seems to only write about death, but if you don't mind (which I don't), than It is pretty good

[L.R. Allan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read a lot of her books in middle school. Not made for middle schoolers yet they were there. All of them were sick lit with purity culture.

[Ella Waltman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book answered so many of my questions.

[Angel (Bradford) Tweed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg what a tear jerker. The story made me go back to when I lost my parents. Can't wait to read the second book.

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved this book, but I especially love the narrator Vanessa Coppel! I thought she did a wonderful job and I hope that someday she can get the recognition she so deserves because she’s amazing

[Keshia Burchette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved Lurlene McDaniel books and now as an adult I still love them!

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere between life and death by Lurlene McDaniel is a wonderful book about two sisters. Erin, the older sister, and Amy, Erin’s little sister. They are sisters, but Erin envies her sister. She wanted her sister’s life. To have Amy have to cover for her one time, or to have Amy get in trouble for something she did. But most of all she hated that her sister had a boyfriend in which she wanted. Erin liked her sister’s boyfriend a lot, but knew she could never have him. He loved Amy way too much to ever love Erin that way. But what she hated most of all was that Amy always talked Erin into doing stuff for her, or letting her get away with stuff. But that all changed one rainy night when Erin let Amy borrow the car and she gets into a horrible car accident. Amy ends up in a coma, and now Erin and her parents, the Bennett, must wait to see if she’ll live or die. This fiction novel was my second book of Lurlen McDaniel I’ve read. This book point of view was third person, and the tone was basically sad and depressing. But that didn’t stop the book from being wonderful!
The author’s purpose in writing this story was to show that life is short and you need to live it out while you can. You can’t act all stuck up and not do anything because you’ll never know when you or someone close to you will leave you. I can really fell that is the purpose of this book. You could tell that the mood, or tone is sort of sad because the story is mostly picture in the hospital. And this would be a powerful, inspirational book for anyone whose went through this or hasn’t yet experienced it. It’s really important to be familiar in how to handle this if it happens to you. This book can easily be compared to the other book I read,“ Telling Christina Goodbye.” Both includes someone that someone really cares about getting into an accident and ending up in a coma and or dying. Hopefully the next book I read by her isn’t that bad.
So I would recommend this book to anyone. It could touch anyone and I an going to continue to read her books. So far she’s a pretty good author.

[Toughlove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere between life and death by Lurlene McDaniel, is a great and interesting book. It is about a girl named Erin, and her little sister named Amy. Amy is not like the Erin, she is messy, strange, and doesn’t care what people think about her. On the day of Erin’s dance recital, they had an after party. When they ran out of sodas, Erin was supposed to go get some more drinks, but Amy convinced her to let her go instead. Instead of coming back, Amy ran into a pole. Now she is in a comma, and Erin feels responsible. Her whole life is turned up side down, in just that one incident. Then when they start doing the test, she is going lower and lower each time. After a certain period time, they ask if her heart stops, do you want to let her die if her heart stops. Then they say that she is brain dead, and want to take her organs out, and do a transplant. The whole family has to agree, but Erin will not agree to it. Everything is falling apart in her life, she has started to think about her, and how she treated her.


The reason why she wrote this book, is to let people who are in this situation cope with the fact, that just because you want someone to be all right, doesn’t mean they are going to get better. This book is a great example for moving on and really expresses that, anger, sadness, and guilt that some people have when they know deep down inside that they need to let that person go, but don’t want to. It has such descriptive and powerful words, and really connects with the reader. I feel that everyone should read this book, because it will help people who always say that they understand, but have never been through anything like that. It would give them a since of how they are feeling and what they are going through. It would help them connect, and comfort other people they care about, or don’t care about. It truly is an eye opener to the other side of all the decisions that are made when a loved ones fait is in your hands.

[Brittney Hurley · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was another quick read, I'm the beginning two sisters Amy and Erin was arguing about how Amy was never on time for anything. the two sisters was so different. Erin was the responsible child, who wanted to peruse a professional career as a dancer, on the other hand her younger sister Amy was the class clown. literally, Amy was the one who took it one day at a time. she was always up to help someone. but that all changed when Amy talked Erin into letting her drive Erin's car to get more drinks for the cast after party of one of Erin's dance shows. it was raining and Amy lost control of the car and crashed into a tree. she wasn't wearing a seat belt and sustained head trama. while Amy is on life support you learn a lot of Erin and Amy's relationship and about Amy's boyfriend Travis who was none too loyal while she lay in a vegetable state. once Amy was pronounced brain dead, which was my favorite part because organ donation was mentioned, Erin lost control, her parents lost a child, and Travis never came and seen Amy. I would recommend this to young adults, there is a lot of interesting information about organ donation in this book! I really enjoyed it.

[Emily Townsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tragedy/Fiction/Cybling rivalry

This book is about two sisters who seem like complete opposites. Amy is the younger obnoxious sister with the cute boyfriend and all the attention. Her sister is a talented dancer, yet lacks Amy's social appeal. In a tragic car accident Amy is brain damaged and her sister has to deal with the pain and grief of Amy's condition.

This book wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The story kept me reading and the plot was ok. While it is a little outdated, McDaniel's message is not. She asks readers to think about valuing family and more difficult issues like organ donation. Some parts are a bit tear-jerky, but overall it wasn't too sappy. Not the best piece of literature I've ever read, but not the worst either.

[Courtney Seymore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book by Lurlene McDaniel. I have been currently reading a lot of books by this author and i've loved them all. Just like most of her novels, this book is filled with sadness and anger. Although this is a good book, it doesn't contain character development or plot but it does inflict a lot of mood. I experienced mostly sadness throughout most of the book. Also, it contained a very powerful story, filled with excitement. I would most certainly recommend this to everyone, especially people going through a similar situation as Erin. I never got tired reading this book. Lurlene McDaniel is definitely one of my favorite authors.

[Lexi W · Rating 4 out of 5]

i gave this book four stars because it really demonstrated a life lesson. I liked it because it was really about how you should love and care about your family. It was about how her sister got into a car accident and went into severe coma. She ended up not living but her family stuck together and went through it. I liked this book because it jerked with your emotions and you felt like you were right there. One moment you could be happy and the next you could be crying. that is why i gave this book four stars.

[Madi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lurlene Mcdaniel is my second favorite author (#1:Scott Westerfeld) She never fails to catch you attention. I cry in every single one of her books because thay are all about some life-theatening disease. This one was though one girl's point of view as her sister gets in a terrible accident and is dying. The books always help me to see what a dangerous place the world is. But, it also teaches you to be strong. You are put through these trials for the better.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was sad and I even teared up a little bit at the end. Lurlene Mcdaniel's books always get to me. lol.I've had the book for awhile and decided to get it out of the way. The book was pretty predictable & too easy of a read.
My favorite Lurlene Mcdaniel books are "Don't Die My Love" and "I'll Be Seeing You" THEY ARE AMAZING!! I definetly reccomend those 2 books!

[Jaclyn Goss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book when I was ten or eleven. I loved all of her books, and as a result thought I was sick with something or another most of the time :). this book was my notebook. I was miserable about the seperation between the sisters! A very moving book, about growing up a bit to fast, and loosing someone you'd thought be at your side forever.

[TEENS Holmes County · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review by Chantrelle K.

Erin realizes how much she loves her little sister, Amy, when Amy has a care accident and is comatose. Erin learns how to deal with the pain.

I thought it was interesting how each person deals with the sorrow. I liked this book because Erin is a likable character and relate-able.

[Valencia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that this book was the best! It was about 1 or 2 years ago that I've read this, and it was amazing. I had just re-read it about a month or two ago. This book had honestly touched my heart because the fact that Amy died and Erin blamed herself with it, just made me break down and cry. I would definitely reccomend this book to anyone.

[Erin Brawner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somewhere Between Life and Death is about two sisters and how one night can change everything. Due to a car accident, Amy ended up in a coma and on life support. The family has to decide if they will donate her organs to save other lives. This book could help students cope with accidents and deaths.

[Hazel McHaffie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one came into my radar because of its subject matter - organ donation. It's teen fiction written in 1991, telling the story of two sisters, family tensions and a tragic accident. It usefully alerts youngsters to the importance of organ donation, and made me realise all over again the importance of balancing an agenda with a story line.