There Will Come A Time.

Arcos, Carrie.  There Will Come A Time.  Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse  2014   320p  $17.99  ISBN 978-1-4424-9585-2  hs  Realistic fiction VG

Mark is driving with his twin sister Grace as his passenger when a distracted driver crashes into his car.  Grace dies and Mark enters a mental state in which he obsesses over his role in the crash, feels anger at the driver of the other car, and questions how he can live without Grace and survive the emptiness that fills him.  The grief process is a journey unique to each individual, and Mark’s is especially painful because he has lost his twin.  Through friends, especially Hanna, who lives next door, he finds a way to escape his isolation and move toward self-acceptance by fulfilling a bucket list that he and Hanna find in Grace’s journal. This is a poignant look at how death affects family and friends.  The support group, Twinless Twins, actually exists, and it is integral to the plot.  Mark attends a high school for the arts, and his music helps pull him through his grief, as do his friends as they prepare for their senior project, which is a fashion show including music and dance.  

This novel provides a beacon of hope for anyone who has lost a loved one and is trying to cope with sudden loss.  The book’s title says it all.  While Mark is Filipino, his heritage and the cultural diversity of his friends seem more of a throw-in rather than being integral to the plot.  This advance reviewer copy had a spelling error that needs to be changed from “damn” to “dam” so that the reference to the bridge/rock foundation on page 60 is accurately spelled.      

Summary: A distracted driver crashes into Mark’s car and kills his passenger, his twin sister.  The grief process, relationships within family as well as among friends, and how a twin survives the loss of his sibling are realistically portrayed.  Grades 8-12.

Grief-Fiction, Love-Fiction                                 --Lois McNicol