YA novels with heaven as a setting

peachiemkey · Jan 31, 2009

This is an idea I've been playing around with for a while. Can you guys think of any books, besides Lovely Bones, where the MC is in heaven/an afterlife of some sort? Or - and I don't think this would apply for Lovely Bones, since the MC is just watching over her family - where action takes place in the afterlife?

ETA: I'm not really thinking of angels, or religious fare - the characters would have recent memories of their lives on Earth, and it would be more of a "separate society" fantasy, but not fantasy as in magic and epic adventures or... something.

Shady Lane · Jan 31, 2009

I think it's called The Afterlife and I think it's by Gary Soto, but I'm too lazy to check, haha.

Claudia Gray · Jan 31, 2009

I have one of those ideas too, though it remains just a germ in my mind. I'll be interested to see what else is out there!

Ciera_ · Jan 31, 2009

I was seriously pondering this idea several years back, a book about a girl/boy who dies and has to find their way to heaven/where they're supposed to be. I was like 9 when I imagined this, so there were magic forests and neverending swamps and stuff throughout. I haven't considered this idea recently, even though it's still promising, simply 'cause I don't really have much of in the way of faith/spirituality and I don't really feel like confronting/testing my beliefs as I would probably have to do in order to write something like this.
But I would SO read it.

reenkam · Jan 31, 2009

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

peachiemkey · Jan 31, 2009

Thanks for the suggestions, Shady and Reen. Elsewhere looks closest to what I'm thinking of. I'll have to pick it up.

My tragically underdeveloped idea is, okay, girl wakes up in heaven... she can't float or anything, it's pretty gritty, and there's some quirky world building... there's no looking down on her family; her death is covered very briefly... she meets another dead guy, surprise surprise, they get together... and then some crazy adventure happens involving, er, something. *slams head on desk*

ciera - sounds cool. actually, I'm pretty nonreligious so if I wrote this thing, I probably wouldn't cover religion at all. and I bet I'd get slammed for that - by my dad, I mean. exciting.

peachiemkey · Jan 31, 2009

oh man, I'm thinking of ideas here. say...
the "afterlife" is really just a holding pen for people who were reluctant to die, who died expectantly, or who just weren't ready (so the population of seniors is low, car accident victims high). Once they come to grips with their death, they fade away and just stop existing, which is supposed to be a form of peace since 'heaven' really isn't all that great. You just walk around and stuff, with no needs. (there could be forests

) If you jump off a cliff, you can barely feel pain, and the only emotion you can really feel is the emotion of "okay, I'm ready to go now."
Enter MC, a girl, who's just died. She walks around, contemplating her death, and meets with a boy who's just died... they like each other, but they can't fall in love because of the diluted emotions. This is a problem. Neither of them wants to 'fade away' because they each have important ties to Earth (to be thought of later). So together they work to start feeling emotions... to start feeling pain... putting themselves in incredibly dangerous situations just for that single spark of feeling. Finally, they succeed, and they fall in love or something close to it (and mebbe make out a lot? or just a lil?). So now they have clear heads, and they realize how much better it is and that everyone around them who fades away in matter of days is being stupid. And so... um... something happens, and something else happens, and there are subplots, and in the end they actually return to Earth. as ghosts. but a new kind of ghost. and then there's a sequel.

LOL

ETA: THE BOY could be the boy WHO DIES in my current WIP *gasp!*
I swear to god, I don't actually think about death that much. I barely think about it at all. It's just a crazy interesting and beautiful plot device.

Ciera_ · Jan 31, 2009

Sounds cool. A bit like The Giver, with the whole lack-of-emotion thing.
It also has the potential to be very uplifting and/or very depressing.
The only thing is, you'd have to find some pretty important things to tie them to Earth. I mean, wouldn't most people think they have a good reason to go back? And it seems a little cheap to me that this ordinary girl and boy can 'trick' or 'cheat' heaven by gaining access to emotions they're not supposed to have.
If done right, this could be an exceptional book! But I'm just shying away from it because it seems like there are a lot of potential plot problems you'd face.

Quossum · Jan 31, 2009

You might want to read Everlost by Neal Shusterman.

--Q

peachiemkey · Jan 31, 2009

Ciera_ said:
Sounds cool. A bit like The Giver, with the whole lack-of-emotion thing.
It also has the potential to be very uplifting and/or very depressing.
The only thing is, you'd have to find some pretty important things to tie them to Earth. I mean, wouldn't most people think they have a good reason to go back? And it seems a little cheap to me that this ordinary girl and boy can 'trick' or 'cheat' heaven by gaining access to emotions they're not supposed to have.
If done right, this could be an exceptional book! But I'm just shying away from it because it seems like there are a lot of potential plot problems you'd face.

Yeah. Most people definitely would, & it is weird. It's gonna require some thinking.
... that's going to take place after I finish my wip. after. afterrr.

& thanks, quossum.

wandergirl · Jan 31, 2009

Seconding Neal Shusterman's Everlost -- it isn't about heaven, but more of an uncanny afterlife middle-place, like purgatory.

Also, I really think you'd have to tackle religious concepts -- it's the afterlife, after all! -- but you'd have the potential to leave it very open to interpretation. Alice Sebold sort of did that in Lovely Bones, I believe.

eyeblink · Feb 1, 2009

I haven't read it, but Anthony McGowan's Hellbent takes place after death, though not in Heaven but the other place.

Without giving too much away, and despite what the title implies, the same author's The Knife That Killed Me doesn't take place in an afterlife, except metaphorically.

ragefaith · Feb 1, 2009

I'm thinking you shouldnt use the world 'heaven' or 'paradise' in ur afterlife, since those have religious connotations and if you're not going to tackle them, leave them out.

Doctor Shifty · Feb 1, 2009

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. Not intended as a YA novel, but as it deals with some of the narator's childhood experiences it's not unreasonable that kids will relate.

peachiemkey · Feb 1, 2009

Great suggestions. I totally forgot about Five People.
wg - I guess I would have to cover religion somehow - maybe enough so it's not an elephant in the room, but not so much that it's a central issue.

AnneMarble · Feb 1, 2009

There's also Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall by Wendy Mass. And for the opposite end, there's Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go, a more recent one.

(I'm not sure if it's a YA book, though. Maybe more like pre-YA.) There's also the upcoming Jo-Jo and the Fiendish Lot. I may have seen others recently, atlhough most of the "afterlifey" YA books I've seen seem to involve ghosts rather than heaven or another version of the afterlife (Crutcher's The Sledding Hill, etc.).

For an oldy but goody in the Limbo department, there's Scott Corbett's The Big Joke Game, sadly out of print. It's about a practical joker who ends up in Limbo after an accident. His guardian devil helps him through it.

BAY · Feb 2, 2009

Peachie#7 post. Teens who die suddenly might work for what you mentioned. Teens with chronic diseases are prepared better for death, through hospitalizations, etc.

Redaelf · Feb 2, 2009

E. L. Konigsburg's "A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver" is a YA historical about Eleanor of Aquitane, and her life, but the framework is that the character is waiting to see if one of her husbands will get out of purgatory soon or not (she's in heaven). It's a fun one. Probably not very similar in feel to what you're thinking of, but it popped into my head.

One that relates more thematically: Perelandra by C.S. Lewis is an old-fashioned Sci-Fi/Fantasy in which there is a paradise preserved in the world--the character has to prevent evil from entering. It's very philosophical, so you may want to just read the opening for feel, since it's not particularly YA. Has some interesting takes on the subject, though, of what a perfect world would be like.
(It is also a sequel, but stands alone fairly well.)

I have this strange feeling I'm forgetting something, but if it's going to come to me I'll just have to post again. (It may be that today I read Flora's Dare by Isabeau S. Wilce, in which there is a crossing over into another life.)

YA novels with heaven as a setting

peachiemkey

circuits in the sea

Shady Lane

my name is hannah

Claudia Gray

Ciera_

reenkam

aka cupcake

peachiemkey

circuits in the sea

peachiemkey

circuits in the sea

Ciera_

Quossum

peachiemkey

circuits in the sea

wandergirl

~kirsten hubbard

eyeblink

Barbara says hi

ragefaith

Wants to be Yami when she grows up.

Doctor Shifty

Press Any Key

peachiemkey

circuits in the sea

AnneMarble

Nefarious Ghost Fan

BAY

Redaelf