Review of "The Ghost and The Goth" by Stacey Kade

"The Ghost and The Goth"
by Stacey Kade


3

Pub. Date: June 29th, 2010
Pages: 288

Synopsis: 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?

I enjoyed "The Ghost and the Goth", but it kind of fell flat for me. Alona was an interesting character, but I couldn't get over her attitude and ego. She got better towards the end of the book and it helped me to enjoy the book more, but I felt like it just took too long for me to start to enjoy her character. I did like how she was able to help Will to learn to use his ability and that did show that she wasn't as heartless as she seemed, but it came a little late for me. It also bothered me how Will would complain about Alona so much but then he was constantly staring at her legs. I guess that's just a guy thing, but the whole relationship didn't really make much sense to me. Both characters only seemed physically attracted to one another.

I think I would have liked the book better if the story had focused on Will's abilities more. I did enjoy hearing the story through both characters' perspectives. Sometimes I find this jarring, but both characters had unique voices that made it easy to follow. Overall the book was enjoyable and funny, I just wish I could have connected to the characters more. I know that other people have enjoyed this book a lot more than me, so I think it comes down to whether or not you can accept Alona's character.