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A review by karenleagermain
Spooky Little Girl by Laurie Notaro
1.0
I love Laurie Notaro and have read all of her books. “Spooky Little Girl” is the first Notaro book that I really disliked. I felt like it was riddled with problems. None of the characters, with the exception of the Dog, Tulip, were likeable. Not only where they impossible to like, but I couldn’t even understand why most of them would be friends. It just didn’t work.
The story centers around Lucy Fischer, a self absorbed dental hygienist, whose Fiancé mysteriously kicks her out of the house when she returns from a girls only trip to Hawaii. She doesn’t have time to figure out why she has been dumped, before being hit by a bus and turning into a ghost. As a ghost, she must attend “Ghost School” and learn scare tactics, prior to getting an assignment back on earth, where she must intervene in the lives of her friends, family and former fiancé.
The whole Ghost set up is kind of clever, but it wears thin. It also isn’t consistent. It seems like Notaro set up the rules of being a ghost, only to break or bend them when it is convenient in the story. Example- Ghosts are not strong enough to pick up a pen and write a note…however, they can move chairs, throw picture frames and write on a steamed mirror. It just seems silly.
The mystery of why her Fiancé dumped her is just not interesting enough to carry the story. The motivations of the characters are weak and uninteresting. Also, the story has too many implausible coincidences. The biggest thing that irked me was no one noticing that she was missing. Why wouldn’t the sister take greater action to inform Lucy’s friends that she was dead? Her death was supposedly all over the news, yet none of her friends figured it out. I’m glad my friends are smarter than that!
Finally, the title of the book doesn’t really make sense.
The story centers around Lucy Fischer, a self absorbed dental hygienist, whose Fiancé mysteriously kicks her out of the house when she returns from a girls only trip to Hawaii. She doesn’t have time to figure out why she has been dumped, before being hit by a bus and turning into a ghost. As a ghost, she must attend “Ghost School” and learn scare tactics, prior to getting an assignment back on earth, where she must intervene in the lives of her friends, family and former fiancé.
The whole Ghost set up is kind of clever, but it wears thin. It also isn’t consistent. It seems like Notaro set up the rules of being a ghost, only to break or bend them when it is convenient in the story. Example- Ghosts are not strong enough to pick up a pen and write a note…however, they can move chairs, throw picture frames and write on a steamed mirror. It just seems silly.
The mystery of why her Fiancé dumped her is just not interesting enough to carry the story. The motivations of the characters are weak and uninteresting. Also, the story has too many implausible coincidences. The biggest thing that irked me was no one noticing that she was missing. Why wouldn’t the sister take greater action to inform Lucy’s friends that she was dead? Her death was supposedly all over the news, yet none of her friends figured it out. I’m glad my friends are smarter than that!
Finally, the title of the book doesn’t really make sense.