Ember and Ness are best friends in this grim tale. When Ness dies, Ember learns there is an inbetween place where Ember still exists. She believes she can bring Ness back to the real world. I struggled to finish this one because it was so grim and there were questionable aspects of the story. Ember learns of her friend's death not from her father but from the school principal at an assembly. Then she is basically kidnapped and traded for a dead dog by her uncle. Of course this lets her know about the inbetween place but still uncle should have been punished. The book is just so sad and depressing, not at all what I would want to give a kid to read.