TJ Klune is a Lambda Literary Award-winning author (Into This River I Drown) and an ex-claims examiner for an insurance company. His novels include the Green Creek series, The House on the Cerulean Sea and The Extraordinaries. Being queer himself, Klune believes it's important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive, queer representation in stories.
His new novel is Flash Fire, the sequel to The Extraordinaries.
[Q&A with TJ Klune; The Page 69 Test: Flash Fire]
At Tor.com Klune tagged five books about death and what comes next, including:
The Lovely Bones by Alice SeboldRead about the other entries on the list.
A different take on what comes next. The novel follows a girl named Susie Salmon who is murdered at the age of fourteen. Shefinds her heaven, but worries about those left behind: her family. Sebold’s prose is lovely and kind, even given the heavy subject matter. This novel is heartbreakingly wonderful look at the relationships between parents and their children, and what they do in order to protect each other. It’s also an unflinching look at grief, both Susie’s and her community reeling from her murder. There is a film version of this novel helmed by Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame), but to me, it loses something in the translation. In this case, the book is much, much better than the adaptation.
The Lovely Bones is among Tim Thornton's top ten books about the afterlife, Louise Doughty's top ten ghost stories, Tim Thornton's top ten books about the afterlife, Jeff Somers's top eight speculative works with dead narrators, Nadiya Hussain's six best books, Judith Claire Mitchell's ten best (unconventional) ghosts, Laura McHugh's ten favorite books about serial killers, and Tamzin Outhwaite's six best books.
--Marshal Zeringue