ghostgirl

Reader reviewed by Sarima89

Is
a book aimed to younger readers, like 12-14 years-old and I think it
manages in a good way all the important subjects like accept yourself,
and that kind of stuff. Sometimes it gets a little bit like a self-help
book, but I totally understand thats a vital part of the book, for the
little girls who read this, and even someone like me, a twenty year old
it has a really important message about life.

Reader reviewed by WilowRaven

Charlotte Usher is dead but she isn't taking it very well. She's pissed
that a gummy bear did her in and she isn't about to let a little thing
like death stand in the way of her getting the perfect Midnight Kiss
from her high school crush or winning the respect of Miss Popularity.
I
only had one major problem with this book - I could not stand
Charlotte! She was selfish, shallow and well, kinda stupid to boot.
Surprisingly, this didn't ruin the book for me :)
Through the course
of her mandatory attendance Dead Ed with the other Dead Kids, and all
the trouble she gets herself into trying to win over her crush Damen,
Charlotte meets up with some pretty cool characters. My favorite is
Scarlet - the only living person who can see Charlotte.
There were
some plot holes to contend with - no mention of Charlotte's family -
the fact that there wasn't even 1 person who Charlotte was friendly
with before she died - the stereotypical popular girls who in the end,
really didn't play all that big a part in the story. I could go on but
I don't want to give the wrong idea. I actually really liked this book.
A quick read, funny at times, with likable characters (ok, maybe not
Charlotte, but I liked everyone else :)
Hurley has written a sequel and I'm curious to see how the story plays out further.
All and all - I give 3 stars.

Reader reviewed by Megan the Librarian

Although I'm a firm believer in the old adage that you can't (or shouldn't) judge a book by its cover, I'll be honest and say the cover is the main reason I picked up this book.  However, in this case, it was a good choice.  I was drawn in by the allusions the author made to classic Gothic literature and current music and poetry (the most obvious being the protagonist's name -- Charlotte Usher) as well as the style of writing that reminded me of 1950s video reels that showed characters doing things while a single narrator provided voice-over commentary. 

These are the things that drew me in, but they lost a little bit of their charm about halfway through the novel's silver trimmed pages.  The story itself was a bit predictable -- the popular boy is deeper than people imagine him to be, the loner girl has more feelings than she wants people to realize, the teen queen's true personality is revealed -- and the reveal of Charlotte's "unfinished" business came too late in the story for my tastes. 

However, with that being said, it was an easy, entertaining read with just enough novelty to redeem the slightly played-out nature of the plot. The fact that there is a website to accompany the story is also a redeeming quality.  I believe this book will appeal to a specific subset of my student population, but not all students will enjoy what's housed within the cover.

Reader reviewed by Amanda

I guess I'll start off right away by telling you about the horrible characters. Charlotte seemed like an average pretty likable character at first but THEN you learn about her plan to become popular...First of all I could really care less about popularity but Charlotte took it a little too far. Especially after she dies and still tries to get Damen to go out with her. Seriously? You think this is how you're supposed to do to make peace? REALLY?! Because you don't even really know him. Get over it mmkay? But that was practically the whole premise of the book. It wasn't horrible though, there were some redeeming qualities. For example the cute illustrations, and more importantly Scarlet. Scarlet was a funny and interesting character. Pretty much the only reason I continued on. I probably would of gave up if it wasn't for the cheering scene. And I will admit the plot was really original. It makes you think about life after death, and I book that makes me think about worldly things gets some brownie points. Overall I think Ghostgirl was a cute read but wasn't really my thing due to Charlotte's popularity fetish and delusion.

Reader reviewed by Julie M. Prince

Charlotte is obsessed with becoming popular. She trained for it all summer long and now its time to put her plan into action, to get the boy of her dreams to notice her. Why should one little gummy bear stand in her way, even if she did choke to death on it?

The afterlife has been portrayed many ways, but author, Tonya Hurley, has come up with a fun read&if one looks beyond some initial quibbles.

Ive looked forward to reading GHOSTGIRL for what seems like ages. The marketing campaign, including ghostgirl.com, has been impressive. However, I found the third person omniscient format a bit too telling in this case. I like characters to express emotions through action and dialogue, not have their feelings spelled out for me. That occurred in many scenes throughout the book, as the story unexpectedly jumped from one characters point of view to another for brief, unnecessary stints of explanation of what each was thinking or feeling.

I did enjoy the humor of the book, and I certainly think it will have a following. Theres always room for people who feel invisible and the characters with whom they identify. Id love to know what other readers think. Head over to the YABC blog if you get a chance: http://yabookscentral.blogspot.com/.

Off to turn another page&.