A young boy refuses to admit that his older brother is dead, and he and his friends go on a journey through a dangerous forest to take his brother's ashes to a woman, said to be a witch who can bring the dead back to life. The journey with his friends reminded me at times of Stephen King's Stand By Me, and at other times it reminded me of Ray Bradbury's classic Something Wicked This Way Comes. By turns heartwarming and gutwrenching, this is a story about death, denial, and ultimately the strong bonds of friendship.

The Weight of Ashes evoked nostalgia for me, reminding me of the kid I was in the 1980s and the movies I watched then, like The Goonies or Stand by Me. Adventure waits just outside the door, and crossing your town feels like a trek of impossible obstacles.

Though the young characters in this book are finely drawn, particularly Mark as he copes with the loss of his brother, I kept being fascinated by the villain Gordon, who was layered and complicated - yet also despicable.

I found this book a bit difficult to get through at first, but it picked up eventually. I enjoyed it, but never really felt like I connected with the story - maybe because I'm not the target demographic.

I wanted to like this book. I really did. And eventually, I could see how good it was, but I struggled at the beginning. Some kids will also, and they'll put it down before they get to the good parts. My struggle was two-fold. In the beginning, with the talk about the witch, I had no idea if the book was realistic fiction (which it reads like) or fantasy. Secondly, I wasn't convinced about the friendships between Mark, Dunk, Mo, and Reggie. Once the story got going they made more sense, but I wanted to like them and connect with them earlier on, and I found that hard to do.

Zachary Steele deals with a hard topic here, and by the time you get to the end, it all makes sense. But it took me a while to get there and a while to be convinced.

**Because of my lukewarm review, I'm not going to post this on social media. I respect that writers put their hearts and souls into their work, and I recognize my opinion is just that, my own.

Thank you Net Galley for an ARC of The Weight Of Ashes by Zachary Steele. This novel is a grief journey and more of Mark a teenage boy for the loss of his brother. I quickly became engrossed in the story and loved the entire book.

The Weight of Ashes is a great YA book about a kid coming to terms with the death of his older brother. It has great characters and a really solid plot. I flew through the book and found the ending really satisfying. The group traveling to find the witch's house was well thought out and super intense. While the ending was a bit predictable the story was well written. I look forward to seeing what the author has in store next.

This is a lovely, gem of a book about grief and friendship. In many ways, it reminds me of Stand By Me, the film version of Stephen King's The Body -- but with a depth of emotion that is even more of a gut punch, and even more cathartic. The writing is beautiful, but it's the well-darn characters that make it work. With all sincerity, I fell in love with this book after one page, but I kept turning the other ones as fast as I could. One note: this is a book about teens, but it's not necessarily a book for teens. It's universal.

After Mark’s brother Mitch is killed in a car accident, Mark and his friends Reggie and Mo set out to find the witch of Spook Hill to have his brother brought back to life. I thought this book was going to be a horror book but found it to be the exact opposite. This coming of age book is a story of grief, what grief does to a family and what it takes to overcome it and move along with your life. This is a beautiful story that young teens and up will love reading. There is adventure, scares and friendship. But at the root of the story is a family trying to deal with the death of a beloved son and brother. I look forward to more from this author.