Review: The Ghost and the Goth

The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

Publisher: Hyperion (Disney)

Publication Date: June 29, 2010

Alona Dare–Senior in high school, co-captain of the cheerleading squad, Homecoming Queen three years in a row, voted most likely to marry a movie star…and newly dead.
I’m the girl you hated in high school. Is it my fault I was born with it all-good looks, silky blond hair, a hot bod, and a keen sense of what everyone else should not be wearing? But my life isn’t perfect, especially since I died. Run over by a bus of band geeks—is there anything more humiliating? As it turns out, yes—watching your boyfriend and friends move on with life, only days after your funeral. And you wouldn’t believe what they’re saying about me now that they think I can’t hear them. To top it off, I’m starting to disappear, flickering in and out of existence. I don’t know where I go when I’m gone, but it’s not good. Where is that freaking white light already?
Will Killian–Senior in high school, outcast, dubbed “Will Kill” by the popular crowd for the unearthly aura around him, voted most likely to rob a bank…and a ghost-talker.
I can see, hear, and touch the dead. Unfortunately, they can also see, hear and touch me. Yeah, because surviving high school isn’t hard enough already. I’ve done my best to hide my “gift.” After all, my dad, who shared my ability, killed himself because of it when I was fifteen. But lately, pretending to be normal has gotten a lot harder. A new ghost—an anonymous, seething cloud of negative energy with the capacity to throw me around—is pursuing me with a vengeance. My mom, who knows nothing about what I can do, is worrying about the increase in odd incidents, my shrink is tossing around terms like “temporary confinement for psychiatric evaluation,” and my principal, who thinks I’m a disruption and a faker, is searching for every way possible to get rid of me. How many weeks until graduation? (From author's website)

My Review: 

This is a really good read where nothing is what it seems.  When Alona is first introduced she is portrayed as a classical mean girl but as Will begins to get to know her so does the reader and we find out that the perfect life she projects is not what it seems.  The book alternates between the POV's of Alona and Will as they try to figure out how Alona can find closure and move on and how will can make it through high school without being harassed by ghosts.  Whenever a ghost is near Will they are able to gain some solidness and are able to move things around.  Will has led a hard life with everyone around him thinking he is crazy for hearing voices, being harassed by the principal and shrink, seeing ghosts everywhere, and to top it off an evil spirit has been stalking him (and becoming more violent towards him).  Alona and Will help each other confront the problems in their lives and begin to fall for each other in the process.  I didn't expect to like the book as much as I did but Kade does a wonderful job bringing Alona, Will, and all the supporting characters to life that I just couldn't help falling for them.  Kade does a great job balancing lightness and some of the heavier material touched in the book.  I loved the ending which had a great set up for the second book Queen of The Dead.