Monday 25 July 2011

Review: The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

Title: The Ghost and the Goth
Series: The Ghost and the Goth #1
Author: Stacey Kade
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: 29th June 2010
Pages: 288
Special Features: N/A
Goodreads Average Rating:  4.02
 After a close encounter with the front end of a school bus, Alona Dare goes from Homecoming Queen to Queen of the Dead. Now she’s stuck as a spirit (DON’T call her a ghost) in the land of the living with no sign of the big, bright light to take her away. To make matters worse, the only person who might be able to help her is Will Killian, a total loser outcast who despises the social elite. He alone can see and hear (turns out he’s been “blessed” with the ability to communicate with the dead), but he wants nothing to do with the former mean girl of Groundsboro High. 
Alona has never needed anyone for anything, and now she’s supposed to expose her deepest, darkest secrets to this pseudo-goth boy? Right. She’s not telling anyone what really happened the day she died, not even to save her eternal soul. And Will’s not filling out any volunteer forms to help her cross to the other side. He only has a few more weeks until his graduation, when he can strike out on his own and find a place with less spiritual interference. But he has to survive and stay out of the psych ward until then. Can they get over their mutual distrust—and the weird attraction between them—to work together before Alona vanishes for good and Will is locked up for seeing things that don’t exist?

My expectations were pretty average on this book. I didn't expect anything amazing, nor anything completely rubbish, but I expected better than I received.

The book didn't manage to hold onto my interest, after the first few chapter's. The beginning was strong, and kept me interested, but afterwards lacked any excitement. When I was about 3/4 way through the book I really couldn't believe it, it felt almost as if the story was still in the beginning stages. The story plan didn't seem very well-developed, and with a little bit more time spent on the planning, it could of been dramatically improved.

The book was also quite short and very fasted paced in someways, I would of enjoyed to see much more time of Alona getting over her death, and also on Will's past.

The book is set in the POV's of two characters: Alona Dare and Will Killian. This was one of the good things about the book, it allowed you to see stories from both point of views and also learn more about them.
Though both character's had disappointment's about them.
Let's start off with Alona, she plays the ghost in the story and she was head-cheerleader, prom queen etc.... when she was alive. Her parts of the story, were written in a way that you could see Alona saying this, and is was completely believable, though she seemed un-phased about being dead and a ghost. Also she is not exactly the most like-able character in the book, she's cruel and hurt-full, yet I will admit she did have her nice moment's.
Then there is Will, who has a special ability to communicate with ghost's, but due to no-one believing him, he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He's my favourite of the two, but also he's kind of a 'what you see is what you get' character, almost one dimensional.

I will not be carrying on with the series.

I really do wish I could give this book more....

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