"I'm Denis, Matt's twin brother. Matt is alive and twelve now. I'm one of those, but not both." Being dead isn't the worst thing in the world. Denis Egan has been dead for five years now, and is shedding his memories in reverse order, on track to progressing to the final stage of death. "Being clean is the total point when you die," he says. "You clear your life out of your system like, well, your food when you have stomach poisoning. You shake off the heaviness, you become air." But just recently, Denis has been experiencing "noises clawing the inside of [his] head" which, according to his great-grandmother GeeGee, mean someone has unfinished business with him. To stop the noises and finish whatever business it is, Denis must return to the land of the living. And, just like that, his peaceful trajectory toward the "ever after" is interrupted.
When Denis starts making the excruciatingly painful journeys to "the before place," he makes contact with Matt, who is agonizing anew over the horrific circumstances of Denis's death. Their family is falling apart, with secrets "whirling around... like a simmering industrial fire." Matt begs Denis to stay in his world and "haunt" him until they find out why Denis was "ripped away." As they piece together the complex series of events from five years ago, it becomes clear that their lives--and deaths--will be forever altered.
Tony Abbott has written more than 100 books for children, including the Secrets of Droon series, the Copernicus Legacy series and The Summer of Owen Todd. Witty, suspenseful and full of hope, Denis Ever After fearlessly travels into the dark mysteries of life, the afterlife and the spaces in between. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor