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A review by carlyxdeexx
Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier
4.0
Ah yes. Yet another review I wrote in full that was erased by Goodreads because there is no draft feature for these ding dang reviews. I honestly wish there was a way to save progress on here without publicly posting a partial review.
Anyway, this was a recommendation from my cousin. I love the art, I love that my cousin’s skin color is represented in this book, and I admire its effort to tie the ghosts into Maya’s cystic fibrosis through breath and energy (though I thought the execution was a bit shaky, it was easy enough to just accept and kinda go with—much like the idea of ghosts appearing as skeletons).
I liked that school wasn’t the battleground of this book? The battleground isn’t always school. This wasn’t a book about cliques, popularity, or bullying along with the difficulties of a move, facing the idea of illness and death as a child, and what it means to care about someone. GHOSTS is focused and doesn’t delve much into Cat’s school life, other than it’s a place where she eventually makes friends.
I liked that these characters were nuanced, but so easy to understand. Cat could be bratty or selfish at times, but we were always shown why, and every difficult moment was balanced by a moment of love or sacrifice. It was nice to see flaws in every character, and love them anyway.
One thing I saw in this book’s reviews is that some people are disturbed by the lack of history when it comes to the ghosts. Most of them are supposedly Mexican and people wondered at the absence of Native American ghosts. I get it. I think it’s super apparent that the ghosts in this book are a device more than they are an independent character in their own right. They are a tool used to connect to Maya’s cystic fibrosis, and the concept of death, and hope despite the looming fear of death. Their function in the story is mostly to support Maya and Cat’s story by showcasing a part of their culture and being a representation of something that deeply scares Cat and fascinates Maya.
Is it right to use the ghosts as a device, to tie them to a particular culture? I don’t know. Like I said before, this is a focused book and it knows its themes, and I’m not surprised it didn’t make oppression and rape and extortion part of those themes, especially since kids are the book’s target audience (not to say there’s no way to address such heavy themes in books for children). But I think if that wasn’t Telgemeier’s intention with this particular book, that’s okay.
Anyway, this was a recommendation from my cousin. I love the art, I love that my cousin’s skin color is represented in this book, and I admire its effort to tie the ghosts into Maya’s cystic fibrosis through breath and energy (though I thought the execution was a bit shaky, it was easy enough to just accept and kinda go with—much like the idea of ghosts appearing as skeletons).
I liked that school wasn’t the battleground of this book? The battleground isn’t always school. This wasn’t a book about cliques, popularity, or bullying along with the difficulties of a move, facing the idea of illness and death as a child, and what it means to care about someone. GHOSTS is focused and doesn’t delve much into Cat’s school life, other than it’s a place where she eventually makes friends.
I liked that these characters were nuanced, but so easy to understand. Cat could be bratty or selfish at times, but we were always shown why, and every difficult moment was balanced by a moment of love or sacrifice. It was nice to see flaws in every character, and love them anyway.
One thing I saw in this book’s reviews is that some people are disturbed by the lack of history when it comes to the ghosts. Most of them are supposedly Mexican and people wondered at the absence of Native American ghosts. I get it. I think it’s super apparent that the ghosts in this book are a device more than they are an independent character in their own right. They are a tool used to connect to Maya’s cystic fibrosis, and the concept of death, and hope despite the looming fear of death. Their function in the story is mostly to support Maya and Cat’s story by showcasing a part of their culture and being a representation of something that deeply scares Cat and fascinates Maya.
Is it right to use the ghosts as a device, to tie them to a particular culture? I don’t know. Like I said before, this is a focused book and it knows its themes, and I’m not surprised it didn’t make oppression and rape and extortion part of those themes, especially since kids are the book’s target audience (not to say there’s no way to address such heavy themes in books for children). But I think if that wasn’t Telgemeier’s intention with this particular book, that’s okay.