ghostgirl

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On to reviewage!

ghostgirl
written by Tonya Hurley



Before I even began reading ghostgirl, I fell in love with the format--the elongated cover/page size, the style, even the font. The little blurbs between chapters were spectacular and to me, the best parts of the book. About the book itself though, I don't know, there were times when Charlotte severely annoyed me, but I do have to admit that the portrayal of high school was eerily accurate. She did get on my nerves though when she was dead and still obsessing over some random guy, because seriously? Nobody on this earth is that shallow. I hoped that she would grow out of this, and she did, eventually, but for the majority of the book, this drove me insane. She was giving teenage girls a bad name everywhere; Charlotte Usher: Dead Teenage Ditz. The plot was unique, though, and for the most part, a pleasure to read. I did enjoy the concurrent storylines, but I felt the ultimate ending was really rushed and a bit too miraculous to be true. There's one other thing I'd like to mention before ending this one. Throughout the entire book, I felt like it was trying too hard to appeal to the wrong demographic. Charlotte Usher is a typical teen, but with the black cover [and yes, people, particularly teens, judge books by their covers] and depressing silhouettes and seemingly desperate music references, it singles out a more "gothy" teen audience, when in reality, I think this is a book many other teens would enjoy, but would hesitate to pick up.

Rating: 3.5/5

ghostgirl:homecoming



I'm having some extreme trouble figuring out why Ms. Hurley thought a sequel was necessary. Everything was wrapped up in the last book, albeit rushed, and it all felt so final. A sequel wasn't needed. Nothing interesting happened until the very last page. It just seemed like desperate reaching to tell a story that didn't need to be told. The blurbs between chapters were, however, just as good as before and as fun to read, but they were pretty much the only thing I enjoyed. Another random observation I made: this book and its predecessor really don't carry the very best message to the teenage girls reading it. It's basically letting them know that looks are everything, and that's a horrifying idea to be pushing, as if teenage girls don't get enough of that sentiment. I don't know what happened, but the writing seemed to disintegrate in quality, nothing happened plot-wise, there was no more character development, everything seemed predictable, and it just wasn't a fun read.

Rating: 1.5/5