Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet by Molly Morris is a quirky, thought-provoking novel that blends elements of magical realism with emotional depth. In the small town of Lennon, California, there’s a mysterious contest held every decade, allowing one person to return from the dead for thirty days. Wilson Moss never expected to win, but when she does, her ex-best friend, Annie LeBlanc, is resurrected—and Wil is overjoyed. After all, Annie was the one who ghosted Wil before she died, leaving their friendship in ruins.

However, as Wil rejoices in the return of her best friend, she quickly learns that the rules governing the resurrection are much more complicated than she anticipated. As Wil discovers a loophole that could keep Annie around permanently, she faces the dilemma of how to repair her fractured relationships with Annie and their third friend, Ryan—who also harbors unresolved feelings and resentment. The clock is ticking, and Wil must confront uncomfortable truths about the past to avoid losing her friends forever.

Morris’s novel is a brilliant exploration of friendship, loss, and the complexities of love. The mix of humor, magic, and deep emotional undertones makes for a compelling and unique read. Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet is a story about second chances, self-discovery, and coming to terms with the past, all set in an intriguing, otherworldly premise that will captivate readers. The quirky premise doesn’t overshadow the poignant reflections on personal growth and reconciling with the people who matter most. A truly original and heartwarming novel.

3.5/5 stars

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy!

This book was so clever and unique! I wasn't sure what to expect from the premise, but found it to be interesting and pretty cute overall. Like YA sometimes does, this book fell pretty much in the middle of the road for me. I enjoyed listening to it and was entertained the entire time. Some parts of this story felt really disjointed -- there was a lot of build up to some things with a sudden resolution that left me wanting more. I think the plot and general storyline kept me more intrigued than the writing itself. Overall, this was a pretty quick and easy listen, just didn't do anything major for me.

This is such a unique story. I really enjoyed it and I enjoyed being able to listen to the story too.

This was weird in a good way. I liked the highlight of friendship throughout the whole thing but I was left a little underwhelmed by it.

Every 10 years someone in this small town gets to bring someone back from the dead, and they can stay for 30 days. The concept of this one was interesting and not something I've read before. I couldn't empathize with the characters as they were juvenile, but I thought their growth over the story was interesting. I did like Cass and the Walking Dad comics. Also the cover of the book is so great. I really loved all the colours.

I felt that this book was a bit odd. Initially, when I read the synopsis I was intrigued, but as a kept listening, I just felt that it got a little weird.

This book is about Wilson, Ryan and Annie who used to be best friends. Annie transfers to a new school and their friendship falls apart. Then Annie dies. Once every ten years there is The Welcome Back ceremony in the small town of Lennon, CA and the winner of the lottery gets to pink one person the bring back from the dead for 30 days. Wilson wins and she decides to bring Annie back to life.

I was intrigued by The Welcome Back ceremony and how this book was going to run with it. The book started off a little slow but then sucks you in with its weirdness. I did feel that the characters were interesting and they felt raw and real, but at times I also felt they were a bit shallow. The portrayal of grief, love and relationships though was done very well.

Lastly, I did feel that the ending was bittersweet and left me with questions and wanting a little bit more the wrap things up. This may have been intentional, but I prefer my stories to be wrapped up with a nice bow.

Overall, I give this book a 3.5/5 stars, but round up to 4 stars for this review.

Thank you MacMillan Audio and Netgalley for the #gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

Loved this speculative contemporary! The characters were a delight and I really enjoyed the queer representation. I'd love to see more contemporary fiction with a speculative twist like this!

4.5/5

I am so glad I decided to pick up Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet by Molly Morris because it was a pure delight! I do wish what was going on with bringing a person back from the dead had been explained better in the actual book and not just mentioned in the synopsis, but I caught on pretty quickly and it was a very unique concept for a book. Through Wilson choosing Annie, it brings up a lot of old wounds and Wilson quickly realizes things she didn't before Annie's passing. I loved the journey the story took me on, and the eventual queer romance was very heartwarming.

The audiobook was pure perfection with Georgina Sadler as the narrator and I loved the way she brought Wilson to life. She was fun to listen to, and I thought she did a great job bringing all of the emotions in the storyline front and center. I thought this would be a light and breezy read, but it is a touch heavier, and I thought that brought a lot of depth to the story. I also loved Morris's writing style immediately and it flowed so well! I will definitely be adding this author to my new favorites list.

This is a Me problem.

Given the title and synopsis, I'd expected a quirky story. It's really not. This is very much young-YA, very much teenage drama, and very much not for me.

The writing is great, and the narrator does a fantastic job. Don't let me deter you.

DNF

Dnfing at 22% - I tried. I was excited about the premise. The idea of a town having a lottery to bring someone back from the dead for a month and their friend trying to figure out a loophole to have them stay was a pretty cool one. Good idea, poor execution. I found the town interesting, and the lady that was in charge of the lottery, but all the side characters and storylines were a jumbled mess. Bummer. Also, I am not a fan of the narrator - only certain characters had voices, and others had the same voice. So, sometimes there was a true conversation and other times a monotone one - not pleasant to listen to. Maybe this would be less confusing and more enjoyable to read with my eyes, but I’m not apt to try anytime soon.

Additionally, I wasn’t a fan of the tasteless celebrity death jokes. Yes, this a book about coming back from the dead, but to throw in random death jokes was odd and made me uncomfy.

This was pretty cookie cutter for me. The most interesting part (the supernatural stuff) felt like an after thought, which was disappointing, but otherwise this was a decent YA novel about friendship, loss, and teen angst. The writing was actually very good, but the vague and underdeveloped backstory and supernatural twist left me with so many unanswered questions. I would've rated this higher if it had just skipped all that, or really gone for it. This left me wanting more, and possibly even realizing that YA is not really for me anymore.

Annie Leblanc is Not Yet Dead has one of the most unique premise’s I’ve ever read and I found the writing to be really strong as well. Overall, I really enjoyed this story. At times the main friendships seemed unhealthy, but it all resolved well, and it also just felt realistic. Being a teenager is messy, as are queer friendships and trio friend groups. Additionally, I really liked the setting of this novel and the conclusion. Overall, I really recommend this book! The themes and characters are strong, but most of all, it’s unlike anything I’ve read before.

I have mixed feelings on this book. I feel like I was supposed to like Annie… but I didn’t care for her. This book also felt long and I thought the relationship that came out of this could have had more background to it because it came out of nowhere. I am confused on how I felt about this one, it was good, just not great.

I did not expect the ending to play out the way it did… but I am glad it wasn’t predictable like I thought it would be. It was different.. kind of sad though. Again I’m just confused on my thoughts for it!

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

This was a cute read, with an interesting premise and some fun characters. I found myself smiling through most of this listen. The narrator did a great job.

I liked the premise, and found the towns lottery to be interesting. Other than that though, all of these characters felt very surface level. Wilson likes 90's music but I felt like that was relied upon too heavily to make her character interesting. I also didn't love the random addition of WIlson being into Ryan's twin brother, either.

Things also started to drag by the middle, but I did feel like the ending tied things up nicely. Overall this one was just okay to me!

Audiobook Review - I wasn't sure what to expect when I started listening to this book, but I am happy to report that I loved it! Morris uses a unique premise, setting the story in a town where every 10 years a person is brough back from the dead for 30 days. Morris covers a wide variety of topics that today's teens deal with everyday. From grief to friendship, to relationships, to family, to sexual identity, Morris covers it all! Highly recommended for all teen collections.

This book tackled a shocking amount of topics with a lot of grace. It deals with loss and grief, complicated friendships, what it’s like tobe a teenager, complicated parental relationships, the meaning of life, and it even has a romantic element to it. All of that should have given me whiplash but Molly Morris blends the themes together so seamlessly. In a way it reminds me so much of what it was like to be a senior in high school; constantly being faced with so many big feelings that you just plow through, because it’s the time in life where nothing is permanent and you are being asked every big question about your life when all you really want to think about is what crush you have this week. If you stop to think about it all for too long you will crumble.
My only qualm with this book is the epilogue, (without spoiling anything) I felt it was very tacked on and did not stay true to the characters I had come to know and love. If I were to reread the book I would skip the epilogue, it actively took away from the quality of the story as a whole. Other than that the characters were wonderful, the interpersonal relationships were so interesting and complex, and the concept is incredibly unique.
I listened to the audiobook for this narrated by Georgina Sadler and I thoroughly enjoyed it, the book translated to audio seamlessly and she did a wonderful job.

This was a very unique and interesting Coming-of-Age Story mixed with magical realism.
The idea of being able to bring back someone who died and get them bck for just 30 days to get closure and being able to properly say goodbye is heartwarming and heartbreaking both because how do you use those 30 days that little sparkof hope. Annie who is called back from the dead does not remember the time in between her death and being called back so the author is able to neatly put aside any messy ideas of religion or near death experiences which I appreciated a lot.
Wilson (nemed after Wilson Philipps) was an interesting character. She meant well and has been suffering in her own loneliness and confusion. Her two friends had basically abandoned her with Annie heading off to private school and no longer wanting to be around her uncool public school friends and Ryan hating her after what happened between them, even though they work together. Her choice seemed unlikely, but it allows her to revisit and get closure for the past while also sorting through her own emotions and taking some risks. The romance that builds was a nice added touch to this summer and Pride month read.

The story focused mainly on the character deveopment of the main protagonists manages to remain quite hopeful throughout and ends on a positive note. Although the characters are dealing with grief and loss, the ability to get closure keeps the book from getting too heavy. The grief is addressed, but there is a focus on healing.

What left me wanting more: There were some confusing things in the story that tripped me up a bit, and the ending added another level of uncertainty.

This was fun to listen to, a book I will definitely recommend to my daughter !

I enjoyed this story overall. I felt like this would be a really good YA ‘thriller’ or a YA fantasy story. This story was hard for me to get into and stay focused. I really enjoyed the overall story however for some reason I could not connect to the characters or story. I think I would have DNFed this book if I didn’t receive a few copy. I pushed through it hoping it would get better. This was only because of personal preference and being in a book slump this month. I enjoyed this book for what it is and think others will like it!! I would definitely read other books by Molly Morris. I really liked her magic system in this book.

I received the audio version of this book and the narrator is Georgina Sadler. I thought she was good and her voice was the main reason. I could push through this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook of Annie LaBlanc is Not Dead Yet.

The premise for this book was interesting. A town where every ten years somebody is chosen to return from the dead. But of course it is not as straight forward as it might sound.
I enjoyed the book and thought it well written and kept my interest, but as I have seen others mention, the end left me wondering.

The audio version was well put together and I enjoyed listening to it. The narration was smooth and easy to follow.