Where do I start, I read this book in half a day and could not put down. I’m not good at doing reviews because I worry about spoiling, let’s just say I’m holding on by a tread for the next book, this author just has a way of telling a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Highly recommend this series!

“That version of him is gone now, and in its place is someone I don't quite recognize. It feels like mourning a man I thought I knew.”

Will has been haunting the strange house across the street, cursed with a lonely life and no one to love. As Jade and Will become close, Will finds a second chance at life, brought to the land of the living and finally able to hold his beloved Jade. At the start of Senescence, Will is introduced to the world of the living-he dies as a Victorian teenager and comes back to the foreign world of 1985.

While helping Will adjust to his new life 100 years into his future, Jade is forced to return to memories of her childhood to uncover her late grandfather’s secrets. Finding that her beloved grandfather lied about his life, Jade must reconcile with the betrayal uncovered after his death while she adjusts to a new life of finally being with Will.

Grove Hollow: Senescence is a story of love and grief. My favorite quote highlights the grief threaded through the series: “That version of him is gone now, and in its place is someone I don't quite recognize. It feels like mourning a man I thought I knew.” As Jade mourns her grandfather, she unveils his dark secrets and must come to terms with the man she thought she knew. Mourning comes in so many forms, not just from a death.

Why senescence? Senescence is the biological process of cellular aging, where cells permanently stop dividing but remain metabolically active, leading to gradual deterioration and DNA damage. The theme of aging is fascinating in the context of Grove Hollow. For years, Will has been stuck as a teenager, but in “Grove Hollow” he is finally brought back to life and given a chance to be a teenager again and then grow into an adult. He is finally living and aging after being suspended between life and death. Will chooses to age, to deal with the grief of living, to be with the person he loves. Would Will have degraded beyond memories without Jade?

And how does this affect her love for her grandfather? Are Jade’s memories of him going through senescence? Is he the grandfather she thought she knew?