I Woke Up Dead at the Mall by Judy Sheehan

Summary: When you’re sixteen, you have your whole life ahead of you. Unless you’re Sarah. Not to give anything away, but . . . she’s dead. Murdered, in fact. Sarah’s murder is shocking because she couldn’t be any more average. No enemies. No risky behavior. She’s just the girl on the sidelines.  It looks like her afterlife, on the other hand, will be pretty exciting. Sarah has woken up dead at the Mall of America—where the universe sends teens who are murdered—and with the help of her death coach, she must learn to move on or she could meet a fate totally worse than death: becoming a mall walker.  As she tries to finish her unfinished business alongside her fellow dead teens, Sarah falls hard for a cute boy named Nick. And she discovers an uncanny ability to haunt the living. While she has no idea who killed her, or why, someone she loves is in grave danger. Sarah can’t lose focus or she’ll be doomed to relive her final moments again and again forever. But can she live with herself if she doesn’t make her death matter?

When Sarah wakes up dead, in an ugly bridesmaid dress, in an afterlife situated in the Mall of America, her story is just beginning. She soon meets the quirky cast of characters who populate this in-between place while they wait to be born into new lives: tough girl Lacey, optimistic Harry, sad, sweet, Alice, dim pretty-boy Declan, and swoony Nick. Watching over them all is a no-nonsense angel named Bertha. Sarah soon learns that she and all her new friends have all been murdered, and worse – her murderer is now after her grieving father. Her quest to save him will take her in and out of the mortal world as she confronts her own hidden powers and makes choices about the kind of person she wants to be. Not even death can take away Sarah’s wry sense of humor, and the mall is filled with delightful details – the zombie mall-walkers, the dead camping out in Crate and Barrel, the elevator to the mortal world. Who knew a story about death could be so funny and uplifting?

I WOKE UP DEAD AT THE MALL is out now.

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