Friday, September 21, 2012

Review: The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade



Alona Dare–Senior in high school, co-captain of the cheerleading squad, Homecoming Queen three years in a row, voted most likely to marry a movie star… and newly dead.

I’m the girl you hated in high school. Is it my fault I was born with it all-good looks, silky blond hair, a hot bod, and a keen sense of what everyone else should not be wearing? But my life isn’t perfect, especially since I died. Run over by a bus of band geeks—is there anything more humiliating? As it turns out, yes—watching your boyfriend and friends move on with life, only days after your funeral. And you wouldn’t believe what they’re saying about me now that they think I can’t hear them. To top it off, I’m starting to disappear, flickering in and out of existence. I don’t know where I go when I’m gone, but it’s not good. Where is that freaking white light already?

Will Killian–Senior in high school, outcast, dubbed “Will Kill” by the popular crowd for the unearthly aura around him, voted most likely to rob a bank…and a ghost-talker.

I can see, hear, and touch the dead. Unfortunately, they can also see, hear and touch me. Yeah, because surviving high school isn’t hard enough already. I’ve done my best to hide my “gift.” After all, my dad, who shared my ability, killed himself because of it when I was fifteen. But lately, pretending to be normal has gotten a lot harder. A new ghost—an anonymous, seething cloud of negative energy with the capacity to throw me around—is pursuing me with a vengeance. My mom, who knows nothing about what I can do, is worrying about the increase in odd incidents, my shrink is tossing around terms like “temporary confinement for psychiatric evaluation,” and my principal, who thinks I’m a disruption and a faker, is searching for every way possible to get rid of me. How many weeks until graduation?

First line: “It was easy enough to sneak out of school. I knew that from previous experience.”

Ugh. Okay, I’m sorry. I just did not like this book.

It started out fine, humorous. But then Alona gets hit by a bus and dies.

Really?! Total cliché.

And then as I read more, I realized EVERYTHING was clichéd. Shall I make a list?

Alona = popular. Cheerleader. Athletic boyfriend. But wait. She’s still a virgin. Yeah. Right. And while she’s popular and has won homecoming queen every year, everyone secretly hates her. There’s more! Her athletic boyfriend? Yeah, he’s been cheating on her since before she died. With her best friend. And who knew? Every single person EXCEPT Alona.

But, of course, the popular girl has to have this secret home life where everything sucks because that’s how authors try to make everyone feel like popular are on the same level as us. So, this is Alona’s sucky life. Her dad is screwing some younger woman, her mom gets needy and becomes an alcoholic, her dad doesn’t care. Big deal. Alona is a senior. She’ll be gone (or she would have been if she hadn’t died) in just a few months.

And then she dies and meets Will.

Will = goth. He’s not even goth! He wears black? So what. Goth is a lifestyle, not a fashion choice. Of course all the popular crowd looks down on him, the principal gives him a hard time, and obviously he’s a stoner. Oh yeah, and he can see ghosts.

What I want to know if why he can see ghosts. I get that it’s passed down from his father’s side, but what started the whole thing?

I didn’t like the perspective. It was 1st person but switched between Will and Alona. It started getting confusing when the scene was between them because I’d forget who was telling the story at that point.

I came into this book thinking it would be this really great thing and I’d love it. Wow I was wrooooonnnnggg. I may or may not read the sequel. I mean, the book was funny, I admit. It got better towards the end, but didn’t live up to my expectations.

Favorite quotes:

Alona

Pg. 12

“The cluster of band geeks (fourth tier, better than math geeks but not as good as science geeks because the science geeks could always be counted on to blow something up), just behind Katee’s group of friends, were also black armband-less.”

Will

Pg. 23

“See, here’s the bullshit about high school, and believe me, I’ve had plenty of time to think about this. Teachers, parents, guidance couselors…all of them are always pushing this crap about how it’s okay to be different, just be yourself. Don’t give in to peer pressure, blah, blah, blah. The truth is, it’s really only okay to be yourself if that self is within an accepted range of ‘normal’.”


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