Ghost Story [Hardcover]

Julian F. Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

Fourteen-year-old Anna's friendship with ghostly Roxy, who died in 1818, helps her discover the truth behind a handsome New York photographer staying at her parents' inn in Vermont and using her as a model.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up. Fourteen-year-old Anna's parents have quit big city life to run a bed and breakfast in rural Vermont, which makes little difference to Anna since she didn't really like her old school or have any friends there. While soaking in the tub one day, she looks up to see someone watching her. Roxy is the ghost of a 14-year-old hotel maid who died in the 1800s. Later readers learn that she died of a botched abortion after being made pregnant by a traveling portrait painter. The two girls become good friends, and Anna learns that Roxy cannot pass on to "forever" until something big happens. Through an increasingly unbelievable chain of events that big thing turns out to be saving Anna from a kiddie pornographer, who is a guest in the inn and has managed to get Anna to model for him without her parents' knowledge, by pushing him to his death at a local gorge. The plot is painfully contrived and the attempt to draw parallels between Roxy (whom no one has ever been able to see before) and Anna is too blatant. And while Thompson does throw in "issues"?abortion, drugs, porn, parent/child relationships, teen dating, and, for good measure, aliens?they are piled on way too heavily and never dealt with; instead, they're only used to move the soap-opera plot to its abrupt ending. Try some of Lois Duncan's books like Summer of Fear (1976) or Stranger with My Face (1981, both Little, Brown) for far superior, believable, and enjoyable examples of this genre.?Carrie Schadle, New York Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Thompson (The Trials of Molly Sheldon, 1995, etc.) shoehorns a novel-sized cast into a short story's worth of plot in this wry tale of a teenager, a pornographer, and a ghost. Anna isn't unhappy that her parents have chosen to move away from a New York suburb to be innkeepers in a small Vermont town, but she is lonely--until the ghost of Roxy Cray, a serving girl who died of a botched abortion in 1818, appears. Their relationship is an unusual one from the beginning; Roxy, who can be solid or invisible at will, helps Anna with housekeeping chores while Anna, after giving her new friend clothes and a makeover, calmly decides that it doesn't matter whether she's imaginary or not. It starts to matter only when Tony, a photographer, after glibly convincing Anna to take off her clothes for some shots, is pushed from a cliff. A witness says that Anna did it. All Anna remembers is hearing him shout as she hid behind a rock. Was it Roxy, or is Anna editing her memory? Thompson adopts a casual, chatty tone that robs the uglier revelations of much of their shock value, and Anna seems far too gullible, but the ghost, a bevy of unconventional guests, and a budding romance in a subplot will keep readers awake. Light fare, with some cautionary undercurrents. (Fiction. 10-13) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holth & Co (J); 1st edition (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805048707
• ISBN-13: 978-0805048704
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,484,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Book Is Great!! I did not want it to end!, October 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ghost Story (Hardcover)

Ghost story was a truly fantastic book. I would rate it at more that two stars. And I think that It is more a book for teens, than children. I usually have trouble finding a good book, but Im loved this one immediatly!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dull, August 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Ghost Story (Hardcover)

I thought this book was kinda boring. There were too many parentheses. It read kinda like someone was talking to you. I didn't really like that. The main character seemed sort of unrealistic.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Corinne T. Miller Place, NY, January 9, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Ghost Story (Paperback)

Book Review on the Book
"Ghost Story"

I read the book Ghost Story, a fictional story by Julian F. Thompson. The theme of this book is drama.
This book is about a girl named Anna whose parents make her move to an old tavern in a quite country town in Vermont. She was shy and didn't make any friends until one day a girl named Roxy walked in on her when she was taking a bath. It turns out that the girl was really a ghost who lived and worked in the tavern 100 years ago. While working for her parents in the tavern as a maid she meets many interesting people including a photographer who becomes very interested in using her as one of his models. Roxy has a bad feeling about this and warns Anna. Will Anna listen to Roxy, or will the fantasy of becoming a real model blind her?
This book was interesting to me because it was written differently than many other books that I have read. I didn't expect any of the occurrences that happened.