I’m excited to review another ARC (Advance Reader Copy – I get to read it before the official release date).

Out of Body by Kimberly Baer (which publishes TODAY) is a YA Paranormal-SciFi adventure about a 15 year-old girl named Abby who discovers she has the ability to leave her body during sleep time – or travel on the astral plane. Her cousin, and best friend, Logan has the same ability. This is so exciting for Abby because Logan moved away six months ago and she misses him terribly. 

At first, Abby’s out of body experiences (OBE) allow her to help others: finding a lost pet, helping a neighbor call 9-1-1. Then she learns things she would rather not: her parents’ marriage is on the rocks, and the mean girls at school wrote nasty things about her in their yearbook. (I LOVED the Burn Book vibes in that scene.) 

Abby is an introvert, and it turns out her social life was because of Logan. Once he moved away, her “friends” disappeared. Both her and Logan having OBEs gives her hope that she’ll get her best friend back. But Logan has been traveling on the astral plane longer, and already has other friends and adventure plans that don’t involve her. 

She’s mostly fine being alone, but her mother is not okay with a socially inept daughter. Feeling pressure from her mom, Abby uses her OBEs to make drastic and dangerous decisions. These decisions blow up in her face, and the lessons she learned had a very Disney Channel feel that was nostalgic for me.   

As both cousins make youthful mistakes, Abby will have to accept that her reality has some cracks, and she’ll need to trust the two people she (thinks) she hates the most.

Kimberly Baer has such a great imagination for the fantastical elements to this story. The dilemma Logan finds himself in really makes the reader question outside intervention in environmental factors such as evolution, species survival, and the food chain. Overall, a great read for teenagers and fans of YA literature.

And like some of my other reviews, Kimberly Baer agreed to an interview! Check it out below:

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I think it’s amazing that you have published in multiple genres. Most writers I have conversed with feel it’s safer to stick with one genre. What has your experience been like?

I agree that it’s safer to stick with one genre; otherwise it’s hard to establish a target audience. My problem is that all of my story ideas come to me out of the blue, and they’re not all in the same genre. When an idea resonates with me, I feel compelled to write that story, regardless of the genre. But most of my recent ideas have fallen within the young adult genre, so that might be the one I “settle down” with.

I know what an out of body experience is, but I haven’t read any fiction involving it. Was there any trope or world building expectations already in place that you felt compelled to follow or not follow?

Nope. Before I started writing Out of Body, I’d never read a book about astral projection, either fiction or nonfiction. I did some research as I was writing, but the world-building comes primarily from my imagination. Assuming astral projection is a real thing, I probably stretched the limits of possibility—but, hey, that’s what fiction is all about, right?

Is this a standalone novel, or do Abby and Logan have more adventures in the works?

I’m not ruling out a sequel. Astral projection is a fascinating subject with endless plot possibilities, so there just might be at least one sequel.

What’s next for your writing career?

I have more story ideas than time to write them, so I’ll just keep tackling them one at a time!

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As mentioned above, Out of Body released today. You can follow Kimberly and purchase her books here: https://www.kimberlybaer.com/