Tag Archives: Ghosts

Review: The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R. M. Romero

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The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R. M. Romero

The Ghosts of Rose Hill
R. M. Romero
Peachtree Teen
Published May 10, 2022

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About The Ghosts of Rose Hill

Magic will burn you up.

Sent to stay with her aunt in Prague and witness the humble life of an artist, Ilana Lopez—a biracial Jewish girl—finds herself torn between her dream of becoming a violinist and her immigrant parents’ desire for her to pursue a more stable career.

When she discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt’s cottage, she meets the ghost of a kindhearted boy named Benjamin, who died over a century ago. As Ilana restores Benjamin’s grave, he introduces her to the enchanted side of Prague, where ghosts walk the streets and their kisses have warmth.

But Benjamin isn’t the only one interested in Ilana. Rudolph Wassermann, a man with no shadow, has become fascinated with her and the music she plays. He offers to share his magic, so Ilana can be with Benjamin and pursue her passion for violin. But after Ilana discovers the truth about Wassermann and how Benjamin became bound to the city, she resolves to save the boy she loves, even if it means losing him—forever.

With spellbinding verse prose, R.M. Romero channels the spirit of myth into a brilliantly original tale, inspired by her experiences restoring Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe.

My Review

What an amazing novel-in-verse. It’s part fairy-tale, part love story, part celebration of history and culture and faith. I fell into this book right from the first chapter and didn’t surface until the last page. I loved the Prague setting and the way Ilana cared for the graveyard out of reverence for her faith and the impact that it had on the people around her.

Lots of things about the story surprised me– in good ways. I loved Ilana’s relationship with her aunt. I didn’t expect some of the conversations they had, and I loved the ways her aunt shared her own stories.

And Benjamin. I loved him, too. I knew he was going to break my heart, and he did, but I loved the journey anyway.

THE GHOSTS OF ROSE HILL is the kind of book that’s going to stick with me awhile. I already want to go back and read it again. It reminds me a little bit of THE BOOK THIEF in its other-worldly-ness. Or VASILISA by Julie Mathison. I think it’s a perfect fit for readers who are aging out of middle grade but not ready for upper YA just yet. And perfect for anyone who enjoys a modern fairytale.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Ilana is Jewish and Cuban American. Other characters are Czech.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Ilana meets a boy who is a ghost. He lives with three other ghost children and a man who has some magic abilities.

Violent Content
Ilana learns of a monster that eats memories.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Family of Liars by E. Lockhart

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Family of Liars
E. Lockhart
Delacorte Press
Published May 3, 2022

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About Family of Liars

The prequel to WE WERE LIARS takes readers back to the story of another summer, another generation, and the secrets that will haunt them for decades to come.

A windswept private island off the coast of Massachusetts.
A hungry ocean, churning with secrets and sorrow.
A fiery, addicted heiress. An irresistible, unpredictable boy.
A summer of unforgivable betrayal and terrible mistakes.

Welcome back to the Sinclair family.
They were always liars.

My Review

I first read WE WERE LIARS in one sitting, telling myself, “just one more chapter” all the way to the end. So, when I heard there was going to be a prequel, I knew I had to read it. It’ll be a little tricky to review the book without giving any spoilers for WE WERE LIARS, but I’ll do my absolute best!

FAMILY OF LIARS takes place on the same island that WE WERE LIARS does. It’s an island owned by the Sinclair family, where they stay every summer in beautiful houses with hired staff. The story is told by Carrie, the oldest of four sisters, the aunt of Cadence, the main character in WE WERE LIARS.

Carrie is grieving the loss of her youngest sister, who drowned on the island. Her family never talks about her sister, though, so Carrie feels isolated in her grief. She’s also addicted to pain pills, something that began during her recovery from cosmetic surgery to reshape her jaw.

That summer, for the first time, Carrie falls in love. It’s not like she expects, and the boy, Pfeff, is unpredictable and… odd. He’s very odd. Charming and impulsive. Daring and forgetful.

So Carrie tells us the story of the summer she met Pfeff and all that happened to her family. The secrets that devastate them quietly behind the masks of perfection.

The Tension Gradually Builds

I felt like the story began a little more slowly, building gradually. At the beginning, I wasn’t sure I was going to love it. I couldn’t get a feel for where it was going and whether it was going to have that same emotional, destructive darkness that WE WERE LIARS had that I found so compelling.

Then, the story began to build speed. Power. I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what happened to Carrie, her sisters, her mom. All these broken girls with their secrets and lies. I needed to know what would happen to them.

So I stayed up waaaaay too late finishing the second half of the book, and now I really want to read WE WERE LIARS again to see how knowing these things about Carrie’s generation of the Sinclair family fits into what we learn in Cadence’s story.

All in all, though, I’m so glad I read FAMILY OF LIARS, and I recommend it to anyone who loved WE WERE LIARS. You don’t have to have read WWL before reading this book, but know that FAMILY OF LIARS contains spoilers for WE WERE LIARS, so if you plan on reading both, read WWL first.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Most characters are white. One character is Jewish. One boy is gay. Two girls have a romantic relationship with each other.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Brief touching. In one scene they undress and it’s understood they have sex. Reference to sex. Reference to two girls in a romantic relationship.

Spiritual Content
Ghosts visit Carrie.

Violent Content
Someone hits another person over the head and kills them.

Drug Content
Carrie takes codeine and sleeping pills. Carrie and the other teens drink alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Muse of Nightmares
Laini Taylor
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published on October 2, 2018

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About Muse of Nightmares
In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.

Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice—save the woman he loves, or everyone else?—while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she’s capable of.

As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel’s near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?

Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this gorgeous sequel to the New York Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer.

My Review
My favorite thing about Muse of Nightmares was watching the way all the side stories and history of what seemed like peripheral characters came together. I loved the redemptive moments especially. No spoilers! Just know that there are several characters who have great moments where they rise above their emotional baggage and they’re all fantastic.

I’m a huge fan of sister stories, so I loved that Muse of Nightmares begins with a sister story. It took me a really long time to figure out the way Kora connected to Lazlo and Sarai’s stories, but once I did, I felt like I couldn’t read fast enough. So much emotion and such high stakes! I loved it.

Like Strange the Dreamer, this book has a more mature tone that makes it feel less like a young adult novel. Lazlo and Sarai are both young (okay, I think Lazlo is twenty maybe?) but their issues and their behavior make them feel much more like adults than teens. Still, I really enjoyed the story and the rich story world.


Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Since this is a fantasy, there are made up races and ethnicities. The story begins in a more temperate climate with a brown-skinned people and progresses to a desert climate of brown-skinned people. A separate race of gods have blue skin. A couple of characters have blond hair and pale skin and are from a cold (think Scandinavian) place.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some very sensual scenes showing kissing and touching between girl and boy. Two female characters also have a relationship and share sleeping space. Two male characters begin to feel some attraction toward one another. One culture views gay relationships as wrong, but the other (the culture where the story takes place) accepts all different kinds of relationships. There are some references to sex and some nudity. No descriptions of sex itself, but some descriptions of activities leading up to it.
In the past, the gods took human slaves and used them to bear their children. No descriptions of rape, but obviously the survivors bear some trauma from the experience, and there are some references to what happened, like a man overhearing his wife screaming.

Spiritual Content
A blue race of humans have magical abilities (one specific ability each) and call themselves gods. Muse of Nightmares explores the history of the gods – where they came from and how they came to be in Lazlo’s world.
Ghosts remain in the world while they’re under the control of a powerful goddess.

Violent Content
Ghosts attack a group of humans.
Sarai relives some old memories, including one in which she steps over the dead bodies of two women and sees a lot of blood on them and on an ally’s hands.

Drug Content
Some references to drinking alcohol.


Review: Ghost Maven by Tony Lee Moral

Book Review and Content, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Ghost Maven
Tony Lee Moral
Saturn’s Moon Press
Available October 3, 2016

Amazon| Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

After Alice’s mom dies, Alice, her sister, and her dad move to Monterey, California. There Alice tries to confront her fear of water by kayaking in the bay. A sudden storm drags her out to sea, and a mysterious boy rescues her. Alice can’t stop thinking about Henry, the young sailor who came to her rescue. Then she learns that Henry has been dead for over one hundred years, bound by a curse which can only be undone when he atones for wrongs he committed in his life. Henry warns her that their love is forbidden by rules that govern his curse. But to break the curse, Alice risks losing Henry.

This story reminded me a lot of Ophelia Adrift. Grief-stricken girl meets the ghost of a sailor and falls in love. Lots in common there, though there are some significant differences in the plotlines, too. I loved the setting of this novel—Monterey, CA. It definitely added to the story and felt real. I liked Henry and some of the other characters.

As the action ramped up, sometimes it got a little hard to believe. Things happened quickly, and sometimes just didn’t seem logical or like there was enough motivation set up for the characters to make the choices they did. Because of the prologue and the Ghost Maven abilities and artifacts, I kind of thought this might be a series. The end of the novel doesn’t really indicate that the story continues, though.

If you enjoyed Ophelia Adrift or have an interest in ghost stories, you’ll want to check out this book.

Recommended Age 13 up.

Cultural Elements
Characters are white middle class Americans.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing. Rumors spread about one girl’s behavior with boys at school. Later, a boy reveals he completed her homework in exchange for some intimate behavior.

Spiritual Content
Since Alice’s mom died, she no longer believes in God. It seems the whole town believes in ghosts, though, even members of a local church. Alice learns of a curse which causes anyone who drowns in the bay to continue to walk among mortals, though their heart no longer beats. She also learns of a group of warriors who can destroy these undead creatures. Symbols and artifacts help defeat them.

Alice and her friend hold a séance to try to reach a girl believed to be dead. Alice’s mom communicates with the girls. Alice’s friend has psychic visions of events to come and senses things about people near her.

It probably sounds weird, but the psychic elements on their own bothered me less than the fact the in some places they were sort of mixed in with Christian ideas. In one scene, characters take refuge in a church and then rely on other symbols to protect them.

Violent Content
A battle takes place between the people of the town and those cursed.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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Review: Ophelia Adrift by Helen Goltz

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Ophelia Adrift
Helen Goltz
Atlas Productions

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Newly orphaned, Ophelia Montague moves to the coast to live with her uncle. She soon finds her feet among the locals and takes on a history project learning about shipwrecks in the area. She meets Jack by the sea one night and falls deeply in love with him. Jack feels drawn to Ophelia, too, by a powerful force outside his control. He longs to be with her, but fears she may destroy him if she comes too close. Ophelia doesn’t understand the secrets Jack carries. She only knows she wants to be with him. When Jack reveals the cost of being with him, the price may prove too high for Ophelia to pay, and it may be too late for her to escape.

I liked that the story switches to a lot of different points of view. We see some scenes from Ophelia perspective, others from Jack’s, and still others from Adam or Holly’s viewpoint. I liked the way this drew the focus of the story onto the different relationships in Ophelia’s life rather than letting it be completely swallowed by her obsession with Jack.

The romance between Jack and Ophelia is definitely a dominant force in the tale. I found it a little hard to swallow the strength of their passion for each other because it didn’t seem to have much of a base. Why does she like him? Because she does. Why does he like her? Because they’re soul mates. It was kind of just supposed to be something readers never question. I kept waiting for there to be some revelation about a connection between Ophelia and Jack’s ancestors or something like that. Something that gave reason for the “meant to be” idea.

In the ARC version that I read, there are quite a few copy errors. Sometimes two sentences would be separated by a comma. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a huge error, but things like that tend to trip me up. They may be fixed before the final version is released, though.

In reading some of the author’s notes about the story, I was excited to learn that the shipwreck mentioned in the tale did really happen, and many of the details about the sailors themselves were pulled from records about the real men aboard the vessel. I found it fascinating to have that bit of history pulled into the contemporary story. It definitely added some intrigue and made me want to learn more about shipwrecks.

Also – I loved coming across the various places mentioned in the Australia setting. Until recently, I worked for a company that creates 3D city models, and we had modeled many of the sites mentioned in the story. So that was kind of a cool thing for me that even though I’d never been to those places, I could visualize some of them from our models.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Intense kissing. Ophelia offers herself to her boyfriend, but he responds telling her that she will only share his bed when she is his wife. Adam receives a young woman into his room while wearing only boxers. No details about what happens after, though Ophelia wonders vaguely.

Spiritual Content
Ophelia believes she’s encountered a ghost and does some online research as to whether that could be true. One thing she learns is that (according to her research) if the ghost only partially appears and is missing some part of himself, then it may be a demon rather than a ghost she’s seeing.

Violent Content
Two of the local boys wind up in a fist fight over an old family feud. Ophelia researches records of shipwrecks in the area and learns about some of the sailor’s deaths at sea. A few of these instances are described in some detail.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

Book Review and Content, Historical, Paranormal, , , , , ,

In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Cat Winters
Amulet Books
Published April 2, 2013

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

After Mary Shelley’s father’s arrest as a traitor, Mary Shelley flees to her aunt’s home in southern California. There she hopes to find safety from the ugliness of war and the Spanish Influenza epidemic. When Mary Shelley arrives, she learns the flu epidemic is as alive and dangerous as it was in her Oregon hometown. She also discovers her childhood sweetheart, now a US soldier, apparently missing.

With so many families grieving loved ones lost to war or disease, many people turn to Spiritualism, seeking help from famed photographer who claims to capture spirits of dearly departed in his portraits of the living. Mary Shelley’s aunt presses her into sitting for a portrait. The foggy image of Stephen, her love and missing soldier appears with her in the photograph, shocking Mary Shelley. Soon after, Stephen’s ghost visits her, clearly frightened and disturbed. Refusing to accept the public story of his death, Mary Shelley vows to uncover the truth about Stephen’s death and find some way to help him rest in peace.

While the story brings to life an important period in American history, capturing the desperation of World War I and the fear of the flu epidemic, some of the other elements seems almost at war with themselves. Mary Shelley feels devoted to science and scientific understanding. She staunchly believes that the spiritualism craze is bogus and full of dishonest vendors taking advantage of families of war and flu victims.

She decries both the séance and the photographs of her with spirits, yet firmly believes in the encounters she has with Stephen’s ghost, and never really explores why she believes one and not the others, or whether other people may be able to contact spirits. Some of the scenes in which Stephen’s ghost visits Mary Shelley leave her longing for him and yet I found them creepy. I found it difficult to understand her fascination and longing for him, though her desire to see him at peace seemed noble.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild and infrequent.

Sexual Content
Mary Shelley experiences a visit from her lost love at night. The two grieve that they never had the opportunity to consummate their affection for one another, and begin to make out. No clothes are removed, but it’s a pretty intense scene.

Spiritual Content
During the early 1900s, many people were fascinated with contacting spirits of the dead. Mary Shelley participates in a séance, which she believes a hoax, until the ghost of her former lover contacts her. She sits for a photographer who claims to reveal spirits in his photographs. She does not believe in the authenticity of his practice. Still, she remains convinced that the ghost of Stephen will not be at rest until she understands how he died.

Violence
Brief references to a young man beating his brother. Many references to flu victims and their symptoms. Mary Shelley visits a veterans’ hospital and speaks with soldiers there. Various injuries are briefly described.

Drug Content
Mary Shelley hears rumors that Stephen’s brother is an opium addict.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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