GhostGirl Review

Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley - new series, got for Amber for christmas (of course I read it before I wrapped it lol) and now there's a third book coming out! I do have to say what caught my attention was the book itself - the longer slender size, the cutout hardcover, the design - gothic and kiddish at the same time. Then I read the first few chapters and new it would be a great read.

GhostGirl - Rest in Popularity #1

Author Notes:
Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

And if I should die before I awake,

I pray the popular attend my wake.

Charlotte Usher feels practically invisible at school, and then one day she really is invisible. Even worse: she's dead. And all because she choked on a gummy bear. But being dead doesn't stop Charlotte from wanting to be popular; it just makes her more creative about achieving her goal.

If you thought high school was a matter of life or death, wait till you see just how true that is. In this satirical, yet heartfelt novel, Hurley explores the invisibility we all feel at some times and the lengths we'll go to be seen.

My Notes:
I love the poetry through out, adds a little something extra and at this age Amber is learning about poetry and having to write her own, works perfectly. The design of the book carries through out the inside too... neat feature. Even their website is great! www.ghostgirl.com - Now about the book itself.

I thought it was a an odd way to die... a gummy bear. Amber thought so too. Makes you think to chew your food first lol. But the character Charlotte is always in a hurry as most teenagers are and she had fallen silently in love with Damen - She finally gets her chance to be with him... she gets paired up for Physics class, he starts talking to her a little more (which is what, more than a smile before?) and she's supposed to tutor him... the chance of a lifetime! But its her crush that kills her, chocking on a gummy bear behind closed doors watching Damen that no one sees or hears her... or looks for her. Sadley, Charlottes a loner... on her own and unpopular.

You gotta love, young love! She's not willing to give up even though she's dead now. Nope! She's on a mission to make Damen hers. First, she has to deal with Dead Ed class in the same creepy building she dies in and apparently its been there all along, alongside the other kids in the school.

She meets more ghosts in Dead Ed - even though she had no friends in real life, she finally breaks the cycle and makes them in death but first she has to stop chasing after Damen, realize that she has more important things to concentrate on - being dead and her classmates in Dead Ed need her help to graduate - The story does end happyish... a happy ending would be she's not dead so no not that happy lol... The characters are all teenagers and its a fast moving/skippy book just like teens are, Amber was able to keep up with it :) Preteen approved!

Moral of the story - Open your eyes! There's more around you than just you, don't be so self involved. Don't push love. Crush but don't go mad about it.


GhostGirl - Homecoming #2
Author Notes:
Heaven couldn't be a phone bank, could it?

Charlotte Usher discovers that the afterlife isn't quite what she pictured when she's forced to intern at a hotline for troubled teens. Before she can officially cross over, she'll have to be a source of guidance for one such teen. The problem is she doesn't have much advice to offer since dying hasn't exactly boosted her confidence level.

But when Hawthorne High's leading, love-to-hate cheerleader Petula and her gothic little sis' Scarlet find themselves suddenly resting-in-peace in comas, Charlotte's opportunity to save them will prove to be the risk of a lifetime-for all of them.

My Notes:
I LOVE this author - who would of thought that when you die, graduate and cross over that you'd end up having a crappy customer service job (people call you to help them, kinda like a teen help line) but Charlottes phone never rings.

Without knowing what 'real' friends are - Charlotte befriends Maddy who tries to seclude her from her Dead Ed friends in afterlife. Everyone is having reunions with family and friends but Charlotte. She wants to leave, unhappy and missing her one Alive friend Scarlett that she met in the first book (yeah I forgot to mention her, I can't tell you everything or you won't read it!) who actually needs Charlotte's help. Petula (Scarlett's older sister, mean little bugger) is sick, due to a bad pedicure infection - yes that's a bad way to die too! lol. But Scarlett finds a way to 'cross over' and get in touch with Charlotte - they hatch a plan to save Petula, who is hanging out and learning her own lesson on how to be nice, in a waiting room at the ghost section of the hospital. Kinda freaky how every living place has a ghost area connected to it ;)

In the end, Charlotte grows up a little and Scarlett becomes a closer friends, Homecoming is the most comical adventure and it leaves you kinda hanging... waiting for the next book Lovesick to come out.


GREAT series - AND to top it off my little chef got to watch Ace of Cakes make a Ghostgirl cake!