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A review by fortheloveofnerd550
Ghost Girl by Ally Malinenko
3.0
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and I wanted to thank them and the publisher for allowing me the chance to read this book.
I went back and forth and back and forth about my rating for this book, but I think I finally landed on a 2.5 stars rounded up to a 3. There was a lot about this book that was clever and captivating but there was also a lot that just didn’t work.
As always, let’s start with what I enjoyed.
The writing:
For anyone who knows me well, they know I am a sucker for good writing style. In fact, it can make or break a book for me. In this case, there were large portions that were excellent – I was getting chills up my spine, my heart was racing with fear for our characters, and, during those moments, I was completely invested.
The characters:
There were certain aspects about the characters I really enjoyed. I loved Zee’s relationship with her sister – having a sister myself, it was easy to identify with and get invested in Zee and Abby. I loved their whole dynamic, especially Abby’s fierce desire to protect and provide for her little sister (while also, at times, wanting to strangle her. Which, if you have a sibling, is often how those relationships work.)
I wasn’t as invested in Elijah and Nellie, especially since Nellie starts the book as a bully, but I appreciated Elijah’s concerns and sensitivity about his weight and appearance. I find this is an issue not often addressed in Middle Grade literature and it was heartening to see a character that kids might be able to identify with. And while I didn’t necessarily enjoy Nellie’s character (like, at all) it was encouraging to see a character who was portrayed in a negative light have some redemption in the end. No one is perfect and it’s important for kids to see characters who can change their ways.
The story concept:
Listen, I was here for this story concept. Ghosts, demons and creepy crawlies are my thing. There were a lot of solid ideas in this particular book and while it sometimes felt like there was too much going on for one story, many of these ideas were executed well. I do think I would have preferred for the author to narrow her focus a little and concentrate on doing a few things really well rather than doing a lot of things poorly.
Now for the things I didn’t like.
The writing:
As I said above, there was a lot of great writing in this book. I want to stress that – there were portions where the book had me. However, a book cannot necessarily be saved by patches of good writing. And the bad patches here…they were pretty bad. This caused the pace to feel choppy; I would fly through bits and have to plod through others. It really dragged down my rating because I never felt like I knew if I was going to enjoy the next page or hate it.
The characters:
Listen, I know middle schoolers aren’t usually considered to be the wisest bunch out there, but man, these characters made some pretty dumb decisions. While there were things I really liked about Zee and her gang, their poor decision-making made it hard to root for them.
The story concept:
For the most part, I really liked what was going on here, as I have said above, despite sometimes have one too many elements. But man...that ending just about ruined the whole book. It’s all well and good to hit the notes throughout but the ending is often what sticks with the reader and a bad ending can sour an entire reading experience, as it did here. I don’t want to go into any details because, hello, spoilers, but I will say I was bitterly disappointed to spend all that time reading this book to have it end the way it did. This is what ended up dragging my rating down an entire star.
So, on the whole, I had a (mostly) fun time reading this with some bumps along the way and an unfortunate pitfall at the end. I would be interested in reading more books by this author – sometimes a little practice and experience are needed to smooth the rough edges.
I went back and forth and back and forth about my rating for this book, but I think I finally landed on a 2.5 stars rounded up to a 3. There was a lot about this book that was clever and captivating but there was also a lot that just didn’t work.
As always, let’s start with what I enjoyed.
The writing:
For anyone who knows me well, they know I am a sucker for good writing style. In fact, it can make or break a book for me. In this case, there were large portions that were excellent – I was getting chills up my spine, my heart was racing with fear for our characters, and, during those moments, I was completely invested.
The characters:
There were certain aspects about the characters I really enjoyed. I loved Zee’s relationship with her sister – having a sister myself, it was easy to identify with and get invested in Zee and Abby. I loved their whole dynamic, especially Abby’s fierce desire to protect and provide for her little sister (while also, at times, wanting to strangle her. Which, if you have a sibling, is often how those relationships work.)
I wasn’t as invested in Elijah and Nellie, especially since Nellie starts the book as a bully, but I appreciated Elijah’s concerns and sensitivity about his weight and appearance. I find this is an issue not often addressed in Middle Grade literature and it was heartening to see a character that kids might be able to identify with. And while I didn’t necessarily enjoy Nellie’s character (like, at all) it was encouraging to see a character who was portrayed in a negative light have some redemption in the end. No one is perfect and it’s important for kids to see characters who can change their ways.
The story concept:
Listen, I was here for this story concept. Ghosts, demons and creepy crawlies are my thing. There were a lot of solid ideas in this particular book and while it sometimes felt like there was too much going on for one story, many of these ideas were executed well. I do think I would have preferred for the author to narrow her focus a little and concentrate on doing a few things really well rather than doing a lot of things poorly.
Now for the things I didn’t like.
The writing:
As I said above, there was a lot of great writing in this book. I want to stress that – there were portions where the book had me. However, a book cannot necessarily be saved by patches of good writing. And the bad patches here…they were pretty bad. This caused the pace to feel choppy; I would fly through bits and have to plod through others. It really dragged down my rating because I never felt like I knew if I was going to enjoy the next page or hate it.
The characters:
Listen, I know middle schoolers aren’t usually considered to be the wisest bunch out there, but man, these characters made some pretty dumb decisions. While there were things I really liked about Zee and her gang, their poor decision-making made it hard to root for them.
The story concept:
For the most part, I really liked what was going on here, as I have said above, despite sometimes have one too many elements. But man...that ending just about ruined the whole book. It’s all well and good to hit the notes throughout but the ending is often what sticks with the reader and a bad ending can sour an entire reading experience, as it did here. I don’t want to go into any details because, hello, spoilers, but I will say I was bitterly disappointed to spend all that time reading this book to have it end the way it did. This is what ended up dragging my rating down an entire star.
So, on the whole, I had a (mostly) fun time reading this with some bumps along the way and an unfortunate pitfall at the end. I would be interested in reading more books by this author – sometimes a little practice and experience are needed to smooth the rough edges.