THE WORST PERFECT MOMENT

Now that she’s dead, a queer 16-year-old girl must pass a major test to get into heaven.

Tegan Masters is dead. She wakes up in what could possibly be the most depressing motel in all of New Jersey: Wildwood’s Marybelle Motor Lodge. It’s where Dad took Tegan and little sister Quinn in the wake of their mother’s leaving two years earlier. According to Zelda, the teenage angel behind the motel desk, they’re standing in heaven—“an exact replica of your happiest memory on Earth.” But according to Tegan, it’s actually her worst. And so, Tegan has gone to Upper Management to complain. If heaven is supposed to represent happiness, why is she here? Upper Management, having already had some issues with Zelda’s methodology, poses a challenge. If Tegan is right, and there’s a better representation of happiness from her life, then Zelda will be terminated—but if Zelda is right, and she chose Tegan’s happiest memory, Tegan will be sent to purgatory. So begins an emotional and epic this-is-your-life trip, with Zelda trying to prove her case. What neither girl expects is the sweetness of catching feelings for the other. A fresh take on a possible afterlife, this narrative is filled with depth and wit, despite its dark tone. Its realistic depiction of a girl’s reservoir of coping mechanisms for dealing with those who have let her down is exceptionally well written. Major characters are cued white.

A worthy read about a short life brimming with possibility.