Jennifer | Book Den

Julian Vaughn is a pseudonym of author Lee Thompson. I'm a huge Lee Thompson fan, and although he is becoming a master of many genres, his young adult/coming of age stories are where I find him at his best. Books like [b:Before Leonora Wakes|9460858|Before Leonora Wakes|Lee Thompson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1297884977s/9460858.jpg|14345743], [b:Within This Garden Weeping|16053521|Within This Garden Weeping|Lee Thompson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348943134s/16053521.jpg|21837888], and now Earthly Things are among my favorites.

Earthly Things begins with the (almost) coming of age story of Dexter. We find out early on that Dexter is going to die young. The first half of Earthly Things gives us a glimpse into the often heartbreaking and at times endearing life of Dexter.

Dexter does meet an untimely death (this is not really a spoiler, guys), but the first person narrative continues on in the same vein as The Lovely Bones. I loved this point of view. This is not the first time Thompson has tackled a complicated point of view. It is apparently one of his many talents.

Earthly Things is a brutal book at times. It's heartwrenching, but it's also a great mystery and just a really great read. Even though I couldn't relate to the characters because their reality was so far from my own, I still felt connected to them and emotionally invested in them which I attribute to some really great writing.

Highly recommended.