Publisher: Delacourte Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: August 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0385741750
Pages: 288
I received this book from www.netgalley.net in exchange for an honest review.
What a fun, cute story! It's not often that you come across a book for YA with such delightful illustrations! Cathy Brett is not only an awesome author but a fine illustrator.
The story follows Scarlett as she talks about how she managed to find a few friends even though her family is dirt poor and they all wear second hand clothing and buy the outdated food at the grocery store. Her friends share her love of gory movies and movie making.
One day Scarlett is reminded of a fieldtrip that she has to go on as part of her History class. She decides she is absolutely not going, no matter what. But she knows if she isn't actually ill, her parents will make her go. So she gets a book on mushrooms and tries to find some to make her 'just a little' sick. However, she fails to read the entire thing and ends up cooking a mushroom dinner that's toxic. Unfortunately, she doesn't get time to take care of the dinner before she succumbs and her family ends up eating it too! Now, she's STILL stuck with them!
Scarlett comes across as a typical teen - somewhat self-centered and doesn't think things through, with some snarky humor. She and her friends have very definite personalities as do her parents and brother. I laughed so much while reading this book! I read it in the airport and on a flight, so got a few odd looks, but it really is that funny!
Scarlett learns how to use her ghostly skills in some pretty funny ways and she enjoys scaring the bejesus out of her friends. She even learns that she can blog! However, she's lonely and misses her friends, so she thinks (with a little push from another ghostly blogger) that she should kill them so they can all hang out again. While not her best idea ever, she does come up with some pretty interesting ideas on how to off them. Of course she eventually realizes that it's not ok to off your friends just because you're a lonely ghost.
The only thing that bothered me...and it could be because of my poor vision (even with glasses): some of the pages are done in a very cute manner like putting the words in a spiral or having them look like they've been left in the rain. I had a really hard time reading those couple of pages. Otherwise this is an amazing book and I'm glad the author left it open in the end so that there could be a second one!
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