Real Teen Award
-Guilty Pleasure Book of 2010
The Gist:
Alona Dare was the most popular girl at Groundsboro High School. A dazzlingly gorgeous senior who is homecoming queen and varsity cheerleader co-captain, she was high school perfection. Until she got hit by a bus. Now she’s dead, and stuck haunting school, finding out along the way that she may have been popular, but no one actually liked her. And just to prove that could get worse, she can’t be seen by anyone. Except for the goth-boy loser Will Killian.
Will Killian isn’t exactly thrilled with the set-up either. He has enough trouble with all the other ghosts at the school following him around and making him look like a certifiable nut case. Getting saddled with bossy Alona Dare doesn’t make his life any easier, and she’s worse dead than she was alive. But now they’re stuck together, and they’ve got to figure out how to solve their problems and get along before one – or both – of them disappears for good.
What We Think
What We Think
Reviewed by Living Destiny
Number of Pages: 281
A long time ago, in a kingdom far away, there was a girl who couldn’t find a book to read. So, she found the corniest-looking book in all the land, and decided to read that to get her by. That kingdom the friendly neighborhood Barnes and Noble, that girl was yours truly, and that book was, of course, The Ghost and The Goth. I figured I’d buy it because it looked completely ridiculous, and I was in the mood for a serious fluff book. And, strangely, it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be. Not to say it was phenomenal or anything. It wasn’t. But it definitely wasn’t horrible. I actually liked it, in a weird way.
You can’t really blame me for thinking this was going to be the mother of all lame books. I mean, just look at the title. The Ghost and The Goth. At first glance, this looks like a soap opera script with a fancy hard cover. And the concept: the most popular girl at school dies, and is suddenly a ghost who gets stuck with the loser goth boy she never noticed before. That has the potential to be awful. Really, truly awful. But somehow, Stacey Kade manages to pull it off. So she gets points for that.
I ended up liking both of the main characters. I especially liked how Alona was actually a character I could relate to. What I mean is that she wasn’t the perfect little popular girl you’d think she would be. She had just as many problems as anyone else, but she was more adept at hiding them away from the world. I connected with her more because of that. Also, she had this sarcastic, sometimes rude, way of speaking that made me laugh. Will was a great character too. He was the oddball (seeing that he could communicate with the dead), but you had to root for him when you saw what he was up against. He seemed like the sort of person I’d be friends with if he was real.
The plot was not as bad as I’d feared. It seemed like it should have been shallow at first glance, but when I read it, I found there were a few little twists that I didn’t expect. Of course some aspects of the story were incredibly predictable, but it was expected with a story this corny. The writing was also pretty good. There were some parts that were phrased awkwardly, but it didn’t bother me that much. It’s a sign of good writing when you feel like you’re a part of the story, and I felt sucked into the lives of Will and Alona, so I’d say the writing was good.
The only part that really bothered me was the very end of the book. It was the cheesiest thing I’ve read in a good two months. Especially the last line (I have a real love of last lines-in fact I think we all do). So I was really annoyed. But at the same, I’m excited for the second book in this trilogy (called Queen of the Dead) to come out next summer. So I guess it can’t have been that bad, can it? Maybe a little cheesy is good for us sometimes!
Real Teen Rating~ B- : Check it out from the library.
Reviewed by Dream Catcher
Reviewed by Dream Catcher
The deal was that Living Destiny would have to read Forgive My Fins and I would have to read The Ghost and the Goth. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be reading this book – like Living Destiny I thought the book was going to be really terrible - but I wasn’t dreading it. I’m the type of person who loves to read a good bad book every once in a while. And by bad I mean funny and ridiculous. Not bad writing. Because who likes to read that? But anyways, I read it. And, surprisingly, I really enjoyed it. Honestly and truly enjoyed it. Firstly, characters. When I heard that one of the main characters – Alona Dare – was mean and superficial I thought that one character would make the book unbearable. But there’s this marvelous thing called character development…not used much nowadays…rare but wonderful. And this mind-blowing concept known as character development made the book so much better. Because it made the Alona Dare into someone who you could almost feel sorry for; someone who you could consider a friend instead of an enemy. Will Killian, on the other hand, was someone I liked from the beginning. He was misunderstood and a little weird, but a great character. He just seemed very real. And that whole he-sees-ghosts-but-people-just-think-he’s-crazy was really awesome. I love that kind of thing. Crazy. Now, the plot was semi-original. The someone-dies-and-one-gifted-person-can-see-them-as-a-ghost thing is completely overdone, but there was something redeemable about it. Certain parts of it were really original – something I’ve never read before. One really good thing about this book was that I was eager to continue reading it. I didn’t want to put it down. Which is one of the best things I can say about a book. I think this was a good book. It certainly wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read, but I liked it. I wouldn’t rave about it, or recommend it to people, but I wouldn’t advise anyone against it. Good, but not amazing.
Real Teen Rating~ B : Read it but there's no rush.
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