"Grief in the Fourth Dimension" by Jennifer Yu, narrated by Tim Lounibos and Raechel Wong, is an emotional and thought-provoking audiobook that explores the afterlife and the grieving process with a unique twist. From the moment Kenny finds himself in a purgatorial white room, watching his own funeral, I was hooked. Teaming up with the equally confused Caroline, they navigate their new reality and the unresolved grief they left behind.

The narration by Lounibos and Wong brings an added layer of depth to this already poignant story. Their performances beautifully capture the emotional highs and lows, making the characters' journeys even more compelling. Yu’s ability to tackle heavy themes like depression, social class, and racial issues without making the story feel overly burdensome is impressive. The blend of physics, philosophy, and personal growth keeps the narrative engaging and easy to follow. This audiobook is a must-listen for anyone looking to explore the intricacies of grief and the ways it shapes our lives. Thanks to the author and narrators for this touching experience!

The story of two teens whose lives are irrevocably intertwined. After Kenny and Caroline's deaths, they find themselves in a room together where they watch scenes of their family's lives after their deaths. Very good story and narration.

I’m not sure I have any tears left to cry. This book is great for fans of THEY BOTH DIE AT THE END. Kenny and Caroline are roommates in the afterlife and try to help those on earth grieving their deaths while coming to terms with how they ended up dead in the first place. A heartbreaking tale.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC of the audiobook.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Media for the ARC

This book was so fascinating! I really enjoyed the story and the characters. The concept was unique and the executing excellent. We follow Kenny and Caroline who was schoolmates but not really friends when they were alive. Now they're both stuck in a white room in a limbo state. One day they see their family and loved ones on a TV-screen and find out they can reach out and affect things in the real world. While their friends and family can't see them, they nonetheless try to help them move on from their grief. Meanwhile we also follow their family and see the repercussions of their deaths. There' also this underlying mystery of how both of them actually died. Caroline was killed by a hit and run and her mother is trying to get the driver incarserated however the reader doesn't know who it is. Kenny's cause of death is also a mystery at the beginning of the novel.

I liked the mystery component of the novel and although I saw some of the plot twits coming, I was still caught off guard. I found the grief representation excellent and really enjoyed how the author described different ways to grief. No one tackles a loss the same way and I thought this was nicely represented. It's a story about grief and loss but at the same time there were several heartwarming moments.

Kenny and Caroline developed a friendship in the white room and that was sweet, I didn't enjoy the rifts that occurred between them after some revelations, but appreciated it anyway because it was so real. If this happened in real life, I'm sure I would've reacted in the same way.

A bittersweet, thoughtful and interesting YA book. I highly recommend it if you're looking for something new and eye-opening.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this audiobook, not because I took it light-hearted but because of the seriousness of the theme of the story… Kenny and Caroline existed in the same world but they didn’t really know each other, like the sun and the moon they were students in the same higschool but there’s where the similarities end… they both find themselves after dying in a strange room, that lets them see what unfolds in their loved ones lives and what brings them together, and I cant really talk more about it without giving spoilers and I wont do that. It’s a story that unfolds slowly, with meaning, giving insight into what goes into the lives of loved ones and how did they end up on this particular room, what really brought them together… even their motivations change during the book.

I did like the voices, I kind of felt that even the person reading for Caroline side of the story sounded Asian, but maybe that is my bias. And I did like that both the performers for this book did all the voices for the people they were bringing to life. I felt that at least for me, it ended in a very sad note, but since the whole book is around the death of the two main characters, I couldn’t really expect any less…

I liked and I recommend this audiobook, for everyone that want to explore a book about grieving, and how to keep going after all is gone… its a book that left me thinking, and I can really say that I enjoyed it throughout.

Thank you Netgalley and Tantor Audio for the free audio copy, and this is my honest opinion.

Two teenagers meet in an extra-dimensional space after their deaths. Through a TV in this room, they watch the lives of their loved ones following their passing, communicate the best they can, and learn how their lives were intertwined.

This was a tender book that wormed its way into my heart. The cast was strong; Kenny and Caroline are sweet and loving people, and seeing their stories unfold along with them was more affecting on me than I expected. I especially liked the characterization of Caroline, who wears her heart on her sleeve and chooses kindness after moments of desperation, as well as her brother and father.

I would've liked to see more of Kenny's past; I understand depression, especially as a second-gen immigrant, and feel like I was told more about Kenny's rather than shown. His father was also a favorite.

All in all, a strong character-driven book about grief that I would recommend for book clubs.

This one really surprised me! It is such a unique expression of death and grief! The way the characters were taken through the process of grieving their own deaths while also watching their loved ones grieve them was so fresh! Teens will love this book. A must have for all YA collections.

Oh my goodness, but I LOVED this one!! Jennifer Yu has so perfectly captured grief and pain and loss and fragility... And then she wrapped it in a brilliantly clever construct and filled it with joy and tears and giggles and frustration. The whole glorious assemblage was then presented in a story that was engaging and entertaining without ever feeling preachy or finger-wagging, but instead rang with pathos. The characters were spot-on perfect, full of quirks and foibles and brimming with a humanity that was evident from the opening lines. The narration was fabulous and really brought the characters and their world to life for me. There is so much magic here - both literally and figuratively - and the management of grief and death was handled deftly and with respect. I cried more than I have in a long time, and it felt positively cathartic. I am DEFINITELY looking for more from Jennifer Yu!

Speculative YA novel about death and the afterlife. Kenny and Carolyn attend the same high school but they don't exist within the same world. Kenny dies and his parents are grief stricken. They run a Chinese restaurant in town and they are barely hanging on. Then Carolyn is killed in a car accident. Carolyn and Kenny meet up in a white room in the afterlife. It is furnished with a high def tv showing them scenes with their family and friends after their deaths. They make requests and something magically appears - like comfortable couches, a phone, etc. But, even with the phone, they cannot communicate directly with their families no matter how much they desperately want to. The pain, and loss and grief in this book is indescribable. This was a difficult read for me. It was beautiful written, the story is so tragic, and yet, the overall message is one of hope. Life is beautiful, but it is also hard. No one will get out easy. We will all experience loss that will devastate us. I think we need to read more about grief and loss, because we are all woefully unprepared when it happens. Thank you to Net Galley #netgalley and Tantor Audio for my advanced copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for allowing me to listen to an Audio copy of Grief in the Fourth Dimension by Jennifer Yu before publication on Jul 16 2024.
This was a great story that deals with the grief of passing from the departed POV and the family/friends left behind. The story covers philosophy, the science of space/time, and other dimensions, including depression, grief, suicide, death, social class, racial and migrant issues but not in a heavy way. I did find myself crying at certain points.
Two teenagers pass away in two separate instances and find themselves together in limbo where they can deal with their passing and watch their family deal with it on a big TV. They went to the same school but didn't know each other as they moved in different circles. Kenny is a depressed science nerd of Asian descent whose parents are running an Asian restaurant and they are struggling money-wise. Caroline is a white upper-class, popular, and well-loved in the community whose life is taken in a car accident due to a drunk driver. They become friends and help each other make sense of what is happening. Watching the family through the TV together they discover shocking information about their passing will this affect the friendship they have made?!
Well worth a read or listen, I have already recommended this to a friend.

Heartbreaking, but hopeful and beautiful. At times pretty earnest, which is hard for me not to cringe away from, but I'm glad I stuck with this. Reading this reminded me of how fun it was to watch the Good Place--to consider philosophy, the science of space and time and other dimensions, and what we owe each other. Plus, the sentient room was fun. I wasn't sure about the audio edition's narrator choices at first--neither aged down their voices super well--but the amount of emotion they each were able to pack into their narrations was phenomenal and poignant. This feels like an important read--it has a new-classic feeling to it--and I'd recommend this to YA and adult readers!

Grief in The Fourth Dimension by Jennifer Yu

“What if this the afterlife?” “I don’t accept it!”

Caroline and Kenny died and find themselves in a room, a very particular room where they ask for what they need and they immediately have it! Whatever they think of, it manifests in the room.

From the room it’s interesting to observe how these two teenagers can hear and see everything that keeps on happening on Earth. They listen to their parents, their grief, their lives and how they continue without them.

“Maybe Kenny is there but the restaurant is here” in this line the reader may feel Kenny’s parents inner fight when it comes to believing that he is still with them and trying to contact him but sticking to reality and cold facts. He is dead. Their restaurant is in huge trouble.

Events keep on developing and both of them continue to see everything from their room. It’s tough and suddenly it all clicks. When Kenny said: “It means I was depressed” is extremely heartbreaking! The dialogue Caroline and Kenny have is absolute devastating!

The reader needs to be prepared for this moment at about fifty percent of the narration. It is profound and it cuts deep. However, one doesn’t have to take sides. It’s important to go over it with an open mind and an open heart to try to understand the soul of the characters.

As time seems to go by, other developments come to light and that is the breaking point. No matter what, people will start taking sides and their minds and hearts will close and harden.

Is it possible to forgive someone after something so terrible? Is there a way to live after such tremendous pain? I do not know.

This book was full of teachings and memorable moments. I strongly recommend it.

Upon finishing this book, I sat staring at my wall for a solid 5 minutes, trying to gather my feelings. It was confusing because I knew I wasn't the target audience, but I couldn't put into words how overwhelmed I felt.

The book starts with Kenny in his purgatory white room, watching his own funeral, which immediately hooked me. Then we meet a confused Caroline. Together, they try to come to terms with their passing, the grief they left behind, and the future ahead.

The author managed to discuss subjects like depression, grief, death, social class, and racial and migrant issues without making it feel 'heavy.' The book remains easy to read, even with a sprinkle of physics and philosophy. The characters were complex, and the character development was well done.

Also, I cannot forget to mention that the narrators of the audiobook did an amazing job!

The title, cover, and premise of Grief in the Fourth Dimension peeked some curiosity out of me with the idea of our two dead teen protagonists watching their loved ones move on with life after their lives were cut short. And it was very moving, crushing, and insightful at the same time. However, there are some moments of levity to keep things from getting too heavy or dark. There’s a speculative element with the purgatory room that Kenny and Caroline are stuck in after they die as well as some physics speak that isn’t that hard to understand for the average reader, which tries to explain some of the concepts, but not the main focus. In the end, it’s about how people deal with death and the time after in their own ways, how things don’t work out or end as cleanly as one hopes, and how there is life after. Like in real life, the grieving process is very different in each of the characters, full of realistic personalities. This story also deals with other things like race and class and how that affects how the larger community grieves.

I ended up finishing the audiobook in a weekend thanks to the shorter chapters, and how straight forward the prose was. The performances by Tim Lounibos and Rachel Wong were great, and get super emotional in some sections, which is really good, and dug me further into the emotions than I thought, especially when it came to some of the well done plot twists and reveals.

As indicated by the title, this does deal with the grieving process and the deaths of our two protagonists, as well as the consequences of post-death, so this might not be the best read if you’re looking for something happy. There’s also some profanity. But if you’re ready to look at the nitty gritty of the grieving process with a speculative twist, this is an intriguing look at grief. I will also see whatever else Jennifer Yu had in store for us.

*I received an ARC from Netgalley and Recorded Books. All opinions are my own.*

It was very enjoyable with a solid and refreshing premise! The characters were so engaging and their interactions were so well written. Definitely a must-read