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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Ghostgirl


Hurley, Tonya. Ghostgirl.  Boston : Little, Brown and Co., 2008. $17.99.  ISBN:  9780316113571 
(Image Credit: Cape May County Library, Cape May Court House, NJ.)

Are you dying to be popular?  Would you do just about anything to have the boy you've been crushing on to notice your existence and be completely devoted to you?   That's the approach Charlotte Usher had towards her latest year at Hawthorne High.  All Charlotte wants is to be accepted as the ever popular Petula Kensington and to be noticed by Damen Dylan, the handsomest guy in the entire school.  Although Charlotte comes to school with a new plan to change her social status among her peers, what she doesn't foresee is her death the first day of high school--on the girls' bathroom floor, choking on a gummi bear.

Charlotte's story doesn't end with her death.  In fact, that's when her story truly begins.  She finds herself still enrolled Hawthorne, but on the other side where she can't be seen by the living.  Amongst other dead students Charlotte discovers that she must learn some rather tough lessons before she can move on.  She must give up her feelings for Damen and her quest to be popular. Charlotte doesn't take the news easily, and when she discovers that Petula's sister Scarlett can see her, she finds a new way to contact Damen.  Will Charlotte ever see beyond her crush, or will she be forever trapped within her one-sided-lack-of-a-relationship with Damen?  You will have to read Ghostgirl to find out?

--On a side note, I thought the layout of this book was quite creative, although, physically, it wasn't the easiest book to hold on to.  I found the quotes at the beginning of each chapter really supported and enriched the point Hurley was trying to make.  She also used a broad spectrum of quotes at the start of each chapter, each of which emphasized where the story was going or how Charlotte was feeling.  This was a creative, fun book to read.  Not only did it depict how desperate Charlotte was in her quest to become popular, it also illustrated how far one may be willing to take his or her feelings or sacrifice their own needs, in order to see a bigger purpose outside of themselves.

Check out Hurley's second Ghostgirl book, Ghostgirl:  Homecoming

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