There’s an undeniable heaviness to retired teacher Gaila Kline-Hobson’s debut novel, The Chosen’s Calling (self-published; available on Amazon for $9.95 in paperback and $3.99 as an e-book). Her inspiration was one of life’s most unanswerable questions: Why do young people die? But rather than dwelling on tragedy, she instead imagines a world where death is a transition for youths to fulfill bigger destinies in the afterlife. Her spiritual fantasy novel centers on three teens from...