Passage by Connie Willis Johanna Lander is a clinical psychologist who is studying near-death experiences. Frustrated with the lack of subjects for her research (and the poaching of existing ones by a kooky pop-culture spiritualist), Johanna decides to take matters into her own hands and work with neurologist Richard Wright to clinically simulate her own NDEs. Johanna quickly becomes obsessed with the experience, returning again and again to the liminal space between life and death, which feels bizarrely familiar. Passage follows the classic Connie Willis formula: original deployment of big ideas combined with some action, some farce, and a flurry of characters theorizing and researching. If you have an inner academic hiding somewhere, this is the NDE lit for you. The Name of the Star (Shades of London series) by Maureen Johnson Johnson’s YA series follows Rory Devereaux, a teen from small-town Louisiana whose exchange at a London boarding school is complicated by the seeming reemergence of Jack the Ripper (yeah, that would do it). When a near-death experience leaves Rory with the ability to see ghosts,* she becomes involved in the hunt for the Ripper by way of the Shades, a ghost-hunting group of special agents. Each installment of Shades of London blends humor – courtesy of Rory’s fish-out-of-water antics and kooky small-town anecdotes – with fast-paced, chilling mystery. Here the near-death experience serves a dual function: for Rory it is a jumping-off point for the real adventures, but for many of her fellow Shades, the circumstances surrounding their NDEs are an essential part of their back stories. *Please note how valiantly I resisted a Sixth Sense joke there Book Deals Newsletter Sign up for our Book Deals newsletter and get up to 80% off books you actually want to read. Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. By signing up you agree to our terms of use Vicious by V.E. Schwab Vicious is the story of a pair of brilliant, misanthropic friends who discover that a near-death experience can result in a single near-unlimited power, which is determined by the physical and emotional circumstances of the NDE. What happens as a result of this experiment sends the two young men spinning in opposite directions, and transforms them from friends to bitter, bone-deep rivals. Like all great superpower stories, Vicious is so much more than thrilling, supercharged action: it’s a fascinating character study and a meditation on religion, death, power, and morality. Combine all that with a revenge plot and a complex cast of unlikely superheroes, and you have got a seriously dark and addictive read. Up next on my NDE list: Abandon by Meg Cabot.
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