The Afterlife of Holly Chase

by Cynthia Hand

If I had to place us in time, I’d say this was after his dad had died (there was just that particular tang of grief in Ethan’s awareness that I was so familiar with myself—the terrible ache), but not long after.

You can try to keep the worst things down inside you. You can shove them away, not think about them, not deal. But they bubble up to the surface. They always do.