Review: The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

Jun 9, 2011 by shanyn

Title: The Ghost and the Goth
Paperback, 304 pages
Author: Stacey Kade
Publisher: Hyperion
Publication Date: June 29, 2010
Source: Library
Buy: Amazon

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Book Summary:
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?

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Review:
You know, this isn’t a book I’d normally read. If there is a general contemporary fail for me, it’s a flat preppy character, and this one definitely has a popular girl. But for whatever reason the cover intrigued me and the second book is coming out so I tried it.

Overall? It was pretty good. The general plot of a goth boy being able to see ghosts is fun and gives a lot of room for creativity – there are ghosts of all types that find him and ask for his help, kind of giving unlimited possibilities for a plot.

There are a few things that really really annoyed me, and, funnily enough, they had to do with the preppy girl (Alona) Will (the goth) probably said 100 times how shocked he was that she was kind of smart, or thought of something clever, or came up with a good plan. AY YAI YAI WILL! You would think after you are surprised by her intelligence the first time (okay, maybe the second) you would accept that as who she is. Their romance also came on suddenly and too fast for me. Though Alona is pretty desperate as a ghost seeing as how she can’t touch anyone else.

But, I mean, in general, it was an entertaining read. The ending got a little more crazy than I was expecting and I don’t know how fast I’ll be picking up the second in the series. Towards the end I didn’t hate Alona as much as I did in the beginning (she is really quite rude and condescending), so I am a little interested in what she does next!

Buy: Amazon

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