Shanan B. (yogimommy) reviewed on 1/4/2011 + 35 more book reviews

This was the first book I read by Jaclyn Moriarty. She tells the story primarily through the student's responses to essay prompts, through the notes/minutes of meetings, or through blog entries and comments. This style was completely new to me. So I found the story a little hard to get into, and I was a little annoyed (or maybe irritated is a better word) by some of the character's whose perspective Moriarty used to tell the story.

By the end though, I was intrigued by the story. I could not put the book down and in fact stayed up until midnight reading the final part of the book. And even the next day, I kept replaying elements of the story in my mind. I slowly realized that Moriarty's references to ghosts had little to do with the Halloween depiction that goes boo. Instead a ghost is someone who cannot move beyond a past memory, who is constantly drawn back to that memory and consequently is not fully living in the present. And not able to move beyond that memory.

And even the characters that I found annoying I ended up liking in the end, but the way Moriarty did that did not seem contrived or forced. They all seemed to bring something significant to the wrapping up of the story.

I do not know if I will read more of her books--I know I will not actively go out and look for more of her books to read. But I am glad that I read this book and that I finished it (for a while, I was not sure I wanted to finish it at all).

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