Alona Dare–Senior in high school, co-captain of the cheerleading squad, Homecoming Queen three years in a row, voted most likely to marry a movie star… and newly dead.
I’m the girl you hated in high school. Is it my fault I was born with it all-good looks, silky blond hair, a hot body, and a keen sense of what everyone else should not be wearing? But my life isn’t perfect, especially since I died. Run over by a bus of band geeks—is there anything more humiliating? As it turns out, yes—watching your boyfriend and friends move on with life, only days after your funeral. And you wouldn’t believe what they’re saying about me now that they think I can’t hear them. To top it off, I’m starting to disappear, flickering in and out of existence. I don’t know where I go when I’m gone, but it’s not good. Where is that freaking white light already?
Will Killian–Senior in high school, outcast, dubbed “Will Kill” by the popular crowd for the unearthly aura around him, voted most likely to rob a bank…and a ghost-talker.
I can see, hear, and touch the dead. Unfortunately, they can also see, hear and touch me. Yeah, because surviving high school isn’t hard enough already. I’ve done my best to hide my “gift.” After all, my dad, who shared my ability, killed himself because of it when I was fifteen. But lately, pretending to be normal has gotten a lot harder. A new ghost—an anonymous, seething cloud of negative energy with the capacity to throw me around—is pursuing me with a vengeance. My mom, who knows nothing about what I can do, is worrying about the increase in odd incidents, my shrink is tossing around terms like “temporary confinement for psychiatric evaluation,” and my principal, who thinks I’m a disruption and a faker, is searching for every way possible to get rid of me. How many weeks until graduation?
Lately, I've been reading books added to my TBR in 2012 and had found that my reading tastes have changed in the past seven years. I was starting to worry about my old favorites, whether I would not like them as much if I read them again. So, I decided to reread this book. I did not like this one quite as much as the first time I read it, but I can still say that this is a great book.
Alona is blonde, popular, and dead. She comes back to school grounds as a ghost to find that her best friend and boyfriend are now together, just days after Alona's death. She screams at them and starts sinking into the ground. As school outcast, Will, walks past, Alona notices him laughing at her. But no one has noticed her until then. Well, Will has always been able to see ghosts and while he tries his best to hide it, he's prone to reacting to things that "aren't there" and is labeled as a freak. He usually gets by, listening to music and ignoring the ghosts, but now some of them are starting to notice him and a malicious cloud of energy seems to be out to kill him.
This book is from dual POV, switching between Alona and Will. Both characters are stand-out characters and they each have distinct voices. Alona is known as the popular girl, Will is known as the freak, but what's great about this book is that the writing does not show them as stereotypes and instead shows them as dynamic characters. This is definitely explored with both characters, but I felt that Alona defied her stereotypes a lot more in this book. Not only was she more than a stereotype is real-life (she has family issues and while her classmates seem to think of her as the typical popular girl, a lot of this is just her image. No one really knows her), but she also grows as a person in this book. She has leadership skills and she is really intelligent. She figured out what was going on long before Will and tried to do something to stop it, despite the risk to herself. Will is also a fantastic character, I'm not meaning to ignore him here, but he doesn't undergo as much change as Alona. That being said, I love these two together. Will wants nothing to do with Alona. Not only is she a ghost and he tries his best to ignore ghosts, but she ignored him in life so why should he help her? But Alona is so strong-willed that they end up forging somewhat of a partnership. I honestly just loved seeing them interact with each other.
As obvious from the title and synopsis, this book involves ghosts, but one of the things I like about this book is that it does not go the scary route. Nor does it go the depressing route. This book has a somewhat fun take on ghosts. It mostly has to do with the interactions between Alona and Will, but this is an entertaining read rather than a frightening. I really loved that this book does not go that direction and it was one of the reasons I picked this book series for a reread. This doesn't mean that this book doesn't go dark directions, it does at points, but the overwhelming good-feeling from Will and Alona just beat that.
IN CONCLUSION
So, why is my rating a little lower than my first read? I'm not really sure, but the plot did not wow me as much as the first go-round. I've just read a lot of books since. Though it's still a great book and I don't regret rereading it. I'm glad to say that I still enjoyed this book and I felt nostalgia while reading this book. I remember liking the series more and more with every book so I look forward to rereading the rest of the trilogy!
I hereby give this book
4 Stars!
Meaning: I really liked this book!
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