A review by kurtwombat
Joe Quinn's Poltergeist by David Almond

2.0

I enjoy when inner demons are explored by externalizing them as outer demons. That is the basic idea here but these collaborators fail to deliver much of interest. The story is thin—feels more like a second hand anecdote told without passion or intent. The art work is mundane—the color scheme seemed that of a coffee stain rather than anything that might represent the workings of the teenage mind and imagination central to the story. The story was disappointing because of the evocative use of the word “poltergeist” in the title and the art was disappointing because as often happens, the cover art does not represent the style of the book. I received this book free through the Library Thing website with the understanding that I would write a review and I chose it largely based upon it’s cover art—kind of an otherworldly disturbing 3-D puppet image. Wondered if maybe this was geared toward children and that’s why I didn’t connect with it. But if that is the case, then this is an even bigger failure of the imagination than I initially thought.