The Ghost & the Goth by Stacey Kade
pages: 288
released: June 2010
publisher: Disney Hyperion
cover love: ♥♥

After a close encounter with the front end of a school bus, Alona Dare goes from Homecoming Queen to Queen of the Dead. Now she’s stuck as a spirit (DON’T call her a ghost) in the land of the living with no sign of the big, bright light to take her away. To make matters worse, the only person who might be able to help her is Will Killian, a total loser outcast who despises the social elite. He alone can see and hear (turns out he’s been “blessed” with the ability to communicate with the dead), but he wants nothing to do with the former mean girl of Groundsboro High.Alona has never needed anyone for anything, and now she’s supposed to expose her deepest, darkest secrets to this pseudo-goth boy? Right. She’s not telling anyone what really happened the day she died, not even to save her eternal soul. And Will’s not filling out any volunteer forms to help her cross to the other side. He only has a few more weeks until his graduation, when he can strike out on his own and find a place with less spiritual interference. But he has to survive and stay out of the psych ward until then. Can they get over their mutual distrust—and the weird attraction between them—to work together before Alona vanishes for good and Will is locked up for seeing things that don’t exist? (from Goodreads)

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 7/28/2011 ON BOOKSLIKESTARS.NET

Review:

Okay, because the blurb above is extra long, I’ll spare you guys another summary of this book in my review.  I truly enjoyed reading this story, it was light and funny, at times I caught myself laughing out loud.  Though the characters, Alona and Will are cliches we’ve seen a thousand times (Perfect Penny cheerleader/Mean Girl and Blacky McGoth boy), I wasn’t bored once with their alternating point of views, sarcastic humor and the oh so cute I-want-to-slap-some-sense-into-you fights. If you look deeper you’ll see that neither character is what they seem from the outside. They both have secrets they desperately need to keep hidden and can only count on each other for help out of their situations.  Being able to read G&G through two character’s voices instead of one character or third-person kept the story interesting.  I’m curious to see how Alona and Will’s attraction to each other will play out in the sequel, The Queen of the Dead. She’s a ghost and he’s alive, how will things progress between them?  I’m also excited to see what “ghostly” complications Will’s going to encounter in college and how long Alona has this time before she disappears forever?  Questions, questions, questions…

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