Red Mittens

Book excerpt: Inspired by a blaze at a New England college in the late seventies, Jeanine Love Rooney's debut novel, Red Mittens, is the story of Margo and Gina, two roommates whose spirits are bound to one another and to Earth, unable to ascend to the afterlife until they are able to move past the world and the people they were taken from too early.Stranded in the Halfway Region, a purgatory between Heaven and Earth, Gina and Margo must come to terms with their earthly lives cut too short. Like all teenagers, they need to explore the different parts of their personalities and reconcile them to move on to their next stage.The author captures the angst of the struggle of coming to terms with loyalty, identity, friendship, and redemption.