Haunted Sister [Paperback]

Lael Littke (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

How can you have a ghost story without a ghost? What if the ghost is only in your head? How would you know that you aren't losing your mind?

By medical standards, sixteen-year-old Janine Palmer dies on the day of her automobile accident. When her spirit travels to the "other side," however, she is told that it isn't her time to die, and is sent back to live out her life. When she awakens from her coma, though, she discovers that she hasn't come back alone. There is someone else inside her mind. The voice in Janine's head claims to be the ghost of Lenore, Janine's twin sister, who drowned twelve years earlier. Lenore blames her own death on Janine and is determined to live again in her sister's body.

Now the two girls must vie for one body. Can Janine be sure that her twin is really inside her, or is she simply going crazy?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Part ghost story, part psychological drama, this eerie account of a near-death experience is sure to draw teenage thrill-seekers. Beginning with the sentence, "It was raining on the day I died," narrator Janine recounts how, following a car accident, she is taken to a place filled with "mists and fog," where she is reunited with her dead twin sister, Lenore. When Janine returns to the world of the living, Lenore is there with her, invading her thoughts and learning to control her body. Lenore, who was always the more mischievous of the two, makes Janine do things against her will, like snubbing her boyfriend, Scott, while he recovers from the same car accident; flirting with Scott's hospital roommate, football-hero Rafe; and shoplifting a bracelet. Janine's doctor attributes her patient's belief in Lenore to a temporary multiple-personality disorder caused by head injuries. Janine's problem, however, is more complicated. Lenore is forcing a buried memory?a secret behind Janine's mixed-up identity?to the surface. Despite her heavy-handed foreshadowing and less than subtle rendering of the B-movie good twin/evil twin theme, Littke (The Watcher) manages to make the improbable seem just plausible (and engrossing) enough to encourage readers to suspend their disbelief. Ages 11-14.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-"It was raining on the day I died." With this statement, Janine begins her story. She is seriously injured in an automobile accident while cutting school with her boyfriend. When she "returns" from her near-death experience and awakens from a coma, she finds that her dead twin sister haunts her every thought. Lenore, who drowned at the age of four, wants to experience Janine's life on her own terms. Janine, who has blocked the events of her sister's death from her memory, tries to explain her sister's presence to her parents and doctors, but they tell her it is just a reaction to her head injury. As Lenore takes control of more and more of her actions, Janine finds herself caught in a web of mystery and confusion. She wants to be left alone, but Lenore forces her to remember the day of the drowning. The plot's surprising twists and turns capture readers' interest as Janine tries to unravel the past. In an unexpected ending, she faces the fact that she is indeed Lenore. The believable characters, though rather static, relate well to one another and help to weave the threads of mystery together in a satisfying manner. Fans of Lois Duncan, Joan Lowery Nixon, and Caroline Cooney should welcome this book.
Janet Hilbun, Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); 1st edition (September 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805057293
• ISBN-13: 978-0805057294
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunted Sister, March 7, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Haunted Sister (Paperback)

The novel Haunted Sister is a wonderful book by Leal Littke. Haunted Sister is a novel about a girl named Janine and her boyfriend Scott getting in a car wreck. Janine goes to this misty place and sees her sister that had died in a drowning accident (she is in a coma when she goes to the misty place). When she wakes up she figures out that Lenore her sister that had died is in her body and can control her body parts, and speak to her. After the coma the doctor says that she can go home. So Janine does, and tell's William and William's friend Anna May about Lenore and how whenever she did something bad she would call herself Lenore. After Janine looks back through time about her sister and her together she finally finds out who she is.
In Haunted Sister Janine and Lenore are very interesting characters. Janine is very wise and is known as the "good," child. Lenore is very out going and is known as the "bad," child. Both Janine and Lenore are twins. But I like Janine when Lenore is in her body. The message that the author is giving out is that treat your sister, as you would want to be treated. What I liked most about the book was when it tells what Janine is seeing after the accident? What I liked least was when Janine was in the hospital and I just think that it was very boring, and it didn't really catch my attention. I was really satisfied with the ending because it's not what you expected.
I really liked the author's style because it was very interesting how she wrote it. The author tells what the reader needs to know with the details to make it very interesting. The vocabulary is very easy. And I really don't like how Leal Littke wrote what Lenore was saying because I couldn't really tell the difference if Lenore or Janine was saying it. I think that ages 10- 14 would enjoy this book, but any higher or lower they might not enjoy it. I really recommend this book because it is very suspenseful and you don't know what will happen next.

CEJ

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunted by her Twin!, September 14, 2001

By 

hiphopgirl_1000 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haunted Sister (Paperback)

Young teen Janine gets into a car accident one afternoon after cutting school with her boyfriend Scott. Janine goes through a near death experience where she meets old deceased relatives, but most importantly her twin sister Lenore who died when she was just four. Janine goes through a life and death decision and chooses life. However things are not what they seem. Her twin Lenore has come from the dead back with her and is now inside her body. Lenore is ready to uncover a deep dark sercret in the twin's past that lead to Lenore's death. Janine always know as the "good twin" wakes from her accident with her "bad twin" Lenore inside of her. From her mom she learns she has suffered severe head trauma and her boyfriend Scott is in a wheelchair. However that is the least of Janine's problems. Lenore is constantly annoying her and causing her to do on-Janine things. Many times she blurts out thoughts she doesn't want to and many believe it is just her head trauma. However things get out of hand as some times Lenore is able to take control of Janine's body. But that is just the least of Janine's problems. She is having flashbacks of the time when she was just 4 and Lenore's death. From there Janine uncovers the deep dark secret about herself and what she had been denying deep inside of herself for years. She begins to understand why her twin came back and who she herself truly was. From there she can truly live peacefully and with the truth.

This book was great! It was truly a great horror and science-fiction book. I recommend this book to anybody who loves science fiction. If you like this book you should also try reading Rosewell High.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cute Little Fiction, August 25, 2008

By 

Andrea "Readaholic" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Haunted Sister (Paperback)

Janine and Lenore are twins. One dies, one lives. One is evil, one is good. This book is really interesting and entertaining.

Twins are inseparable, in life and in death. Their mother paints their portrait (this gives a hint . . .)

This book takes place in Canada.