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A review by nightwing
Ghost Girl by Ally Malinenko
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Thanks to NetGalley & HarperCollins Children's Books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Ghost Girl follows Zee who is a creative storyteller, which does make her unpopular in school since her stories are considered "lies" rather than unique stories. She lives with her older sister who works her butt off to support the two of them while their father is out of town. Everything's pretty ordinary...until weird things start to happen. And no one believes Zee.
A very fun thriller/mystery/supernatural story that was hard to put down. Zee was a really fun protagonist and Elijah a great side character with depth of his own. Nellie bogged the story down to me because she was just so...outright nasty to Zee. I know redemption arcs are popular lately but it wasn't handled too well here, Nellie was just consistently rude to everyone to make her redemption believable. That's just me though.
The romance between Elijah and Nellie was ridiculous to me, it really broke the rhythm of the book in some parts. Why would Elijah be willing to date a girl that'd been bullying Zee for years? I would've seen this happen in the second book when some time passes and Nellie had completely redeemed herself but she was in the middle of her redemption arc and the romance just came out of nowhere, frankly. I like a good romance but it was just annoying in here.
Still, I found it hard to put this ghost mystery down and I do recommend it for middle graders who are looking for a solid mystery/supernatural story that's not too outright traumatizing, ha.
Ghost Girl follows Zee who is a creative storyteller, which does make her unpopular in school since her stories are considered "lies" rather than unique stories. She lives with her older sister who works her butt off to support the two of them while their father is out of town. Everything's pretty ordinary...until weird things start to happen. And no one believes Zee.
A very fun thriller/mystery/supernatural story that was hard to put down. Zee was a really fun protagonist and Elijah a great side character with depth of his own. Nellie bogged the story down to me because she was just so...outright nasty to Zee. I know redemption arcs are popular lately but it wasn't handled too well here, Nellie was just consistently rude to everyone to make her redemption believable. That's just me though.
The romance between Elijah and Nellie was ridiculous to me, it really broke the rhythm of the book in some parts. Why would Elijah be willing to date a girl that'd been bullying Zee for years? I would've seen this happen in the second book when some time passes and Nellie had completely redeemed herself but she was in the middle of her redemption arc and the romance just came out of nowhere, frankly. I like a good romance but it was just annoying in here.
Still, I found it hard to put this ghost mystery down and I do recommend it for middle graders who are looking for a solid mystery/supernatural story that's not too outright traumatizing, ha.