A review by stwriter92
City of Ghosts by V.E. Schwab

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I think read this book mostly because I love Victoria Schwab’s writing. I hadn’t read any of her middle grade books before I read this, though. 

To give a general idea of the plot, Cassidy Blake is a girl who has has passed through the Veil and back again when she survived a drowning. In doing so, she was able to see ghosts and pass back into the purgatorial Veil, where restless spirits wander, forever stuck between the land of the living and the eternal peace that they should get. When Cassidy came back from the brink of death, the ghost of a boy named Jacob came back with her. They became best friends and he acts almost like an anchor for her when she is in the veil. Cassidy’s parents are paranormal investigators who have been signed on to do a reality show where they explore famous haunted locations around the world. The first book of this series takes us to grey Edinburgh, Scotland. There, Cassidy learns that there is more to her strange abilities and must face a spirit stronger than any she has faced before. 

The general concept is interesting and I love that this series will center around famous hauntings around the world. I have always enjoyed reading about the paranormal and the idea of having characters that have one foot in the land of the living and one foot in the land of the dad, while not a novel idea, was executed really well.

Reading the internal dilemma that Cassidy had when it came to her best friend was one of the most interesting parts of the book. I could see the justification for both sides. In theory, once Cassidy learns that she’s supposed to help ghosts pass on, the first she should help is Jacob. However, Jacob does not want to go and Cassidy herself seems unwilling to let him go, too. Her newly made friend, Lara Choudhry, tries to tell her this, but Cassidy and Jacob both seem against the idea. It raises the question of whether or not we have the right to make these decisions in the first place. Does free will end with death? Do the dead still have a right to exist? Am I a ghost rights activist? We may never know. 

While I will be continuing with the series, I think that, after I finish the series, I will be sticking to Schwab’s adult literature. This was a good story, but I don’t think it sucked me in (mostly, I’m sure, because I am not the intended audience). 

I do recommend this to people who enjoy a cozy paranormal mystery with a cute cast of characters. 

(Also, I feel like people are exaggerating about how many Harry Potter references there were. They did pop up a bit, but they weren’t littered everywhere like some reviews led me to believe).
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