Author: Tonya Hurley
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: August 2008

Ghostgirl is a sweet little tale about a high school girl who just wants to be noticed by the cutest guy in school, unfortunately for her, she dies before this can happen. What is she going to do now? How will she be able to dance with Damien at the Fall Ball? Can gummy bears really be that dangerous? All these questions arise and are answered in Tonya Hurley’s fable of teen angst. Published in an elongated hardcover with a flashy front cover and spiffy interior page designs, this book is designed to be noticed and desired.

Having been enticed by the spiffy dressing, I was just a little disappointed with the story itself. This was a generic high school caste conflict including the requisite handsome jock with the heart of gold as the love interest, the snooty cheerleader as the nemesis, the Goth outsider as the best friend and the end of the year dance as the ultimate goal. While the story is complicated in that the lead character is dead for nine tenths of the story, this only lends a touch of interest to a familiar tale.

Even though these story underpinnings were not new territory, this normally would not have hampered my enjoyment too much, but they were accentuated by some distracting affectations. My biggest complaints about this book are the moralizing that starts each chapter; and the sense that there were parts of the story missing from this final draft that should have been left in. There were some areas of the story that seemed to skip months or weeks without even a mention of such – so when the reader realizes later that this is obviously later in time than the page before, it can be a little jarring and distracting. There was some information about a past event given – but not enough to come to the conclusions that the characters did, making it seem as if there had been a description that was left out after the final edit. There was even one point in the story where a character alluded to a previous scene that was not included in the story and there was no background given or clues to what it could have been. It was similar to being part of a conversation where two others are telling inside jokes that you are on the outside of.

All that being said, it was not a bad book, and it certainly was attractive and easy to read. The book is also quite liberally sprinkled with references to punk, rock and alternative music groups and artists that were popular decades ago and I am not hip enough to know whether they are back in style now or not. For a quick, light summer read for the younger set, Ghostgirl would certainly fill the bill.

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Topics: Brown Young Readers, Ghostgirl, Little, Tonya Hurley, Young Adult