ANNIE LEBLANC IS NOT DEAD YET

Drama between friends gets messier when a girl is brought back from the dead.

When 17-year-old Wilson Moss enters Welcome Back, the competition held in her hometown every decade that allows the winner to bring one person back from the dead, she never expects that she’ll win, but that’s exactly what happens. Wilson chooses Annie LeBlanc, her former best friend who died on her 18th birthday, to be resurrected. Complicating matters, Annie has only 30 days on Earth before she must return to the afterlife. Ryan, the third member of their formerly close-knit trio, is furious—she’s still angry about the falling out between the three of them prior to Annie’s death. For her part, Wilson is desperate to fix the trio’s friendship—she’s been incredibly lonely since their fight, and she thinks there might be a way to keep Annie alive for good. As the days to Annie’s second death rapidly count down, Wilson must navigate a complicated web of past hurts and lies to bring both friends back in her life. The story is fresh and well executed, simultaneously feeling both perfectly convincing and truly bizarre. Wilson herself acknowledges that her obsession with reuniting her friends can come across as off-putting, truthfully mirroring the challenges of navigating the ebbs and flows of teenage friendships. Wilson’s and Ryan’s queerness is thoughtfully written, and the romantic relationships are tender and believable. Main characters are cued white.

A sweet story that combines realistic relationships with an intriguing, fantastical premise.