Holier Than Thou

‘What do you want, Hol?’ Abby looks into my eyes. ‘I . I want to know that I’m using my powers for good and -’ ‘You want to make a dead man proud.’ ‘Whoa!’ ‘You want to put bandages over severed arteries that really need to be sewn shut. You want the moral high ground.’

Holly Yarkov has a boyfriend who is a gift from the universe. She has a job that fulfils her even as it wears her down. She has a dangerously appealing co-worker, who literally plays with fire. And she has a layer of steel around her heart that is beginning to tarnish. Just as she is reaching for a future she can’t quite see, Holly finds her present invaded by the past, by memories of her father’s death and of her once best friend, the boy-who-never-was.

Grief and longing run like veins of quicksilver through this beautiful novel, which is at once gloriously funny and achingly sad.