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A review by fallingletters
The Ghost Collector by Allison Mills
5.0
Brief thoughts originally published 8 January 2020 at Falling Letters.
[b: I Can Make This Promise|39087436|I Can Make This Promise|Christine Day|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554240097l/39087436._SY75_.jpg|60659968] and The Ghost Collector each feature a girl with special talent, albeit one that is more supernatural than the other. Shelley catches ghosts in her hair. She and her grandmother help them move on to where they’re supposed to be. Mostly, Shelley helps with animal ghosts. When Shelley’s mom dies suddenly, Shelley’s grandmother has to take on more work to support the two of them. She leaves Shelley to be babysat by a neighbour. But Shelley has other ideas – she needs to find her mother’s ghosts. Shelley becomes obsessed with clinging to the ghosts that she catches, rather than helping them move on. Not as dark and heavy as it might sound, nor as sensationalist as it might have been in the hands of another writer, The Ghost Collector is a moving, compassionate story about working through loss and grief.
I initially found it odd that, after Shelley’s mother’s death, Shelley’s grandmother didn’t immediately have a conversation with Shelley about the likelihood of Shelley’s mother becoming a ghost. But then I reminded myself that I’ve never suddenly and unexpectedly lost my daughter and become my grandchild’s caregiver. That conversation could easily have been missed among other priorities.
[b: I Can Make This Promise|39087436|I Can Make This Promise|Christine Day|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554240097l/39087436._SY75_.jpg|60659968] and The Ghost Collector each feature a girl with special talent, albeit one that is more supernatural than the other. Shelley catches ghosts in her hair. She and her grandmother help them move on to where they’re supposed to be. Mostly, Shelley helps with animal ghosts. When Shelley’s mom dies suddenly, Shelley’s grandmother has to take on more work to support the two of them. She leaves Shelley to be babysat by a neighbour. But Shelley has other ideas – she needs to find her mother’s ghosts. Shelley becomes obsessed with clinging to the ghosts that she catches, rather than helping them move on. Not as dark and heavy as it might sound, nor as sensationalist as it might have been in the hands of another writer, The Ghost Collector is a moving, compassionate story about working through loss and grief.
I initially found it odd that, after Shelley’s mother’s death, Shelley’s grandmother didn’t immediately have a conversation with Shelley about the likelihood of Shelley’s mother becoming a ghost. But then I reminded myself that I’ve never suddenly and unexpectedly lost my daughter and become my grandchild’s caregiver. That conversation could easily have been missed among other priorities.