A boy's parents died when he was young. He is being raised by his grandparents in rural Minnesota. His grandpa has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Now the boy is hunting on his own. In most of the novel he is out tracking and hunting deer by himself. He spends time contemplating death of loved ones and animals.
The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
A girl has been struggling after the death of her best friend. She wishes she she would have better communicated her last words to her. Because of the this, the girl has decided to be almost totally silent. The story then proceeds in too part. It gradually moves forward in in the current time as well as moving forward from the time the girls first met. They became friends when they were young and were inseparable. They vowed to prevent each other from being "crazy" like boy crazy girls. However, in middle school, the friend goes boy crazy and the protagonist doesn't. Finally, on the last day of school, the protagonist puts frozen urine in the friend's locker, creating a big mess. They never speak again.
On the current timeline, the girl learns about dangerous jellyfish. She wants to talk to an expert in Australia, but freezes up on the phone. She does a report on jellyfish for school, thinking the friend may have died due to a jellyfish sting. The class doesn't get it. She later decides to go to Australia to talk to the scientist there. She buys a ticket and books things, but discovers she doesn't have a visa and can't travel to Australia alone. In this process, she talks to the friend's mom and learns the friend still respected her for being able to be herself. She also is "stuck" with the annoying boy as a lab partner in school. She learns he is managing his ADHD and they become friends. Finally she opens up and talks and goes to the school dance. She even learns that others she thought had it all together have struggles and insecurities too. She is a smart kid, but doesn't know everything, but struggles with the social issues at school.
An elementary school boy (Jess) looks forward to being the fastest boy at his rural Virginia school. However, a girl (Leslie) moves in and ends up beating all the boys. This leads to the gradual ending of the races. (They would not want to race with a girl.) At first he keeps his distance, but gradually he becomes good friends with her. She has moved out there with her family from the DC suburbs. They spend time together and become good friends. They also work to help avenge a "mean girl" who took treats from his little sister. Later Leslie helps console the mean girl from her separate issues. Jess and Leslie have their own little place in the woods by a creek that they call Terabithia.
One day, Jess's teacher invites him to come to DC with her to tour a museum. While on their way, Jess thinks about inviting Leslie. However, he justifies not doing it. When he gets home, he finds that Leslie has died. This is hard for him. The tail end deals with him dealing with the grieving process. He first denies it, later accepts it, and then decides to use some of Leslie's family's lumber to build a bridge.
It is a well-written exploration of friendship, fitting in and dealing with death.
Today death is often discovered in the context of a medical setting. Tests done in a hospital are used to determine if death is imminent. This leaves doctors in a key role of communicating the news. Medical professionals need to listen to patients and be honest in their communications. This can be very difficult for them and is often outside their realm of expertise. Communication of "months to live" is often misleading. Each person is different and time left can vary significantly. Religion tends to be very helpful in end of life scenarios. Sometimes people are ready to die. Other times they want to keep fighting. It is important to focus on the needs of the patient and help others to understand. We should also communicate well with children. Hiding key points from them can just make it more difficult in the long run.
The book follows the lives of a number of everyday people meandering around contemporary Norway. There are the normal conflicts and struggles of everyday life. There are also a few unusual things that happen. The members of an occult teenage rock band are found murdered in a gruesome fashion. There is also a new star that appears in the sky. Some of the characters interact with these events. Others don't.
Then near the end, the novel gets "weird". There is a long essay discussing death. It would fit in well in a philosophy book, but seems a little out of place in the novel. There is other analysis of religion, science and ways that we seek to understand the world. Some of the characters "see" the dead and have some struggles with them. This relates to the death essay, but also brings what was a fairly natural novel into a supernatural realm. These various twists and turns are well written and stand fairly well on their own, but feel a little odd together.
