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A review by keberwick
Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator by Jennifer Allison
3.0
I read this book for the first time when I was in eighth grade. I devoured it and it's sequel, Gilda Joyce and the Ladies of the Lake, but rereading it didn't hold the same attraction. I think I have to chalk it up to outgrowing Gilda's misadventures. I just didn't connect with the blunt and nosy thirteen year old anymore. I didn't enjoy the writing, either. I felt that the way it jumped around to try and describe every character's thoughts was a bit disjointed and served as fluff as opposed to moving the story along.
If I was a middle school girl, I think I definitely would have identified with Gilda and Juliet (in fact, I'm 90% sure I did) and probably have looked up to Gilda, but now she just doesn't hold the same attraction for me. Overall, my opinion is that if you're a middle school girl, you'll most likely enjoy the book. If you're older than that, it will probably feel a bit childish.
On that note, I've noticed that a lot of the children's series I've been rereading deal with very heavy subject matter but still manage to present it in an "acceptable" way for children (even if I didn't fully understand the situation or subject matter when I first read them). I think it's really interesting to see how authors take something so serious and hard to explain as suicide and explain it in a way that young readers can actually begin to comprehend the implications, and I think this book does an amazing job at this.
If I was a middle school girl, I think I definitely would have identified with Gilda and Juliet (in fact, I'm 90% sure I did) and probably have looked up to Gilda, but now she just doesn't hold the same attraction for me. Overall, my opinion is that if you're a middle school girl, you'll most likely enjoy the book. If you're older than that, it will probably feel a bit childish.
On that note, I've noticed that a lot of the children's series I've been rereading deal with very heavy subject matter but still manage to present it in an "acceptable" way for children (even if I didn't fully understand the situation or subject matter when I first read them). I think it's really interesting to see how authors take something so serious and hard to explain as suicide and explain it in a way that young readers can actually begin to comprehend the implications, and I think this book does an amazing job at this.