about the book
This is the story of four lives and one death and how they are interwoven. It is my story. My name is Jessica Chai. I am an oddball and an introvert—and I am the one who is dead.
It all happened so fast…so very fast. I was hustling toward Biology class when The Skirts blocked my path. Trying to get out of the cheeerleaders’ way, it soon became apparent they were stopping me for a reason. What they wanted was my hair, the white blonde tresses I had been growing all my life. Though I tried to put them off, the shears suddenly appeared and the braid that tipped just past my butt was gone. Three minutes and it was over. My identity gone. That fast.
One of The Skirts stuck a printed flyer in my hand for a senior party, my reward for donating for their cause, hair for bald cancer kids. Though not one of them donated their own silken locks, they wanted the prize trophy for the most hair donated. Their last snide remark was to tell me if I showed up at the party, not to dress like a prude.
Mom took one look at my ruined hair and panicked. I was whisked to her expensive trendy salon and given a whole makeover. She was thrilled I was going to the party. Hopefully, it would springboard her loner awkward kid into the cool clique. If only she knew the future.
You see, I died in a car accident on my way to that party…or I should I say my brain died. I’m still here, but only in spirit. Just like I was my whole life, I am invisible to everyone. Mom continues manipulating my existence…or now lack of existence…by deciding to donate my organs. I don’t want to be hacked to pieces, but I have no choice.
My name is Samuel. I am a gamer. I get Jessica’s kidneys.
My name is Misty. I am a library page. I receive Jessica’s liver.
M name is Leif. I am a football star. I receive some of Jessica’s bone and tissue.
My name is Vivian. I am an artist. I get Jessica’s heart and lungs.
As pieces of me go to Samuel, Misty, Leif, and Vivian, I wonder how much of my soul goes to them as well. I follow their paths from the hospital to their new lives. I grow to support their individual aspirations and the impact they have on one another. Somehow they embrace my memory as a foundation for their interlaced futures. Hopefully, their recovery and successes will help me come to terms with my death and move on.
about the author
Amber Kizer is a city girl who likes noise, traffic, and city bustle, but somewhere along the line she fell in love with chickens and now lives on an island in Puget Sound in Washington State. There she likes to coax roses to bloom, quilt, and make extravagant crazy cakes.
She also raise her flock (a rooster named Hunk and his five hens). Amber says they are like “moving yard art with personality.”
She also has a dog, Lacey and four cats: Sugar, Pookie, George, and Martha. Amber reads about 20 books at a time and claims to change books the way some people surf TV channels. She also enjoys reality TV shows, sour candies, and really loud music (pop, metal, classical, Broadway, and Celtic hits).
Amber didn’t grow up wanting to be an author. While she was in her freshman year of college, she developed a complicated rare nerve condition that affected her legs and forced her to make career-changing decisions. With constant pain and days when her legs won’t function, she found that writing gives her the flexibility she needs. Writing allows her to “live outside the box,” and she’s the first to tell you she has no idea where her strong, stubborn, opinionated characters come from!
Sources:
Author biography: TeenReads
Author biography: Amazon
Author biography: Goodreads
Author video interview
Also by Amber Kizer:
A Matter of Days. Delacorte Books for Young Readers. 2013.
Speed of Light (Meridian, Book 3). Delacorte Books for Young Readers. 2012.
Wildcat Fireflies (Meridian, Book 2). Delacorte Books for Young Readers. 2011.
Meridian. Delacorte. 2009.
Seven Kinds of Ordinary Catastrophes. Delacorte. 2008.
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