Martha Brockenbrough has a lot of fun with her conception of Heaven and the afterlife in her terrifically funny DEVINE INTERVENTION. The word "satire" leaps immediately to mind and stays there. The book starts with examples of the commandments in the handbook for SRPNT--the Soul Rehab Program for Nefarious Teens (Deceased) — in an effort to combat the "growing problem of crowding in the lower levels of Hell. Jerome, who died at age 17 from the accidental arrow shot by a friend, finds himself in a heaven, that not unlike his earthly existence, gives him more rules to follow. His job is to serve as Heidi Devine's guardian angel in a form of redemption if you will and to get his soul back and pass onto Heaven. Whether alive or dead, Jerome doesn't respond well to authority and promptly loses the handbook and begins violating the commandments one by one.

But Jerome's laziness and cockiness causes Heidi to lose her soul as well, and it's the attempt to leave soul limbo that bind the two together. DEVINE INTERVENTION will particularly resonate with teens who aren't at the center of a clique and who struggle to make friends and recognize love when they find it. Well, you might think, that could be most of us, and you'd be right.

Brockenbrough is a talented writer with vivid descriptions— some of which aren't very pretty visuals--, but keep you turning the pages quickly nonetheless. The chapters switch between a third-person narration of Heidi and Jerome in the first person with candor and wit. To my mind, comedy is much harder to write than serious and Brockenbrough does a bang-up job.