4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, May 19, 2007
This review is from: Ordinary Ghosts (Hardcover)
Emil's life has been turned upside down in the last year. His mother has died of cancer and his brother, who he has always looked up to, has disappeared without a trace. Emil and his father don't communicate about anything important and rarely see each other due to his father's work schedule. The only friend he has is Soma, a rule-bending, line-crossing boy who is in the same grade as Emil.
Nothing exciting happens to Emil. He is average in every way. His brother, Ethan, was the bright, shining star with all the friends, good grades, and a way with the ladies. Emil just lives in Ethan's shadow. He attends Caramoor Academy, a private school with a hefty tuition. Since everything has happened in his family, Emil's grades have started to slip and his father is riding him harder than ever to make the grade; especially since he is paying so much for him to go to school at Caramoor.
Emil does have the key though -- the key to notoriety, the key to exploration, the key to discovery. One day before Ethan left home, Emil was digging around in his bedroom and found an actual key. When he asked Ethan what the key unlocked he received a surprising answer: the key was a master key to the entire Caramoor Academy campus. Every door in every building was available to the person who held the key. Emil asked if he could have it and unbelievably, Ethan said yes. Normally the key was passed from one student to another each year. No one except the key holder was supposed to know who had it. The goal of the year was to pull off a monumental prank.
Emil's chance at greatness comes when his father has to go out of town for a long business trip and he has four days and nights home alone. He decides to use his time exploring Caramoor Academy. He sets up a makeshift bed in the attic of the main building and proceeds to unlock every door he can find. One evening during his exploration, Emil sees the art studio lit up and hears music blaring from the room. He finds a girl inside spinning a clay pot. He is shocked and doesn't give her his real name because he doesn't want to get caught, but he also wants to find out what she is doing there. After some conversation, he realizes she is the daughter of the art teacher at the Academy.
Over the next several days Emil and Jade, the girl in the art studio, form a relationship that leads them to many discoveries about themselves, about the death of Emil's mother and Ethan's role in it, and the importance of friendship. Eireann Corrigan has written a complex novel with true-to-life young adult characters that grow throughout the course of the story. Definitely for older teens, this novel covers topics such as grief, loss, family, and discovery with compassion and humor.
Reviewed by: Karin Perry
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Put this book down, I dare you (finding your hands glued to the pages? I'm not surprised), May 16, 2007
This review is from: Ordinary Ghosts (Hardcover)
Tight and inventive descriptions, realistic emotional flaws and a plot that keeps you engaged- that's what you can expect after reading the first few pages of Ordinary Ghosts. Eireann Corrigan takes a simple concept (high school kid with a key to unlock every door on campus) and turns it into an incredible vehicle to confront different themes. No matter how old you are- a junior in high school like the protagonist Emil, or an adult happening to come across this title in the YA section- you relate to Corrigan's characters and side with Emil right off the bat. I was unable to put this book down after I started reading. I should sue Corrigan for keeping me from my job, friends and dinner table. Corrigan takes themes like sibling idolization, death, love and finding oneself and makes them her own. Don't believe me? Buy Ordinary Ghosts, feel the cold air against your face as you travel through an abandoned campus with Emil and start re-living the raw emotions of youth.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic book that transcends the teen-lit genre, May 15, 2007
This review is from: Ordinary Ghosts (Hardcover)
I should preface this review by saying that I am not a teenager (I'm 30), nor do I know much about the teen lit world. I read this book on a recommendation from a friend and found myself having trouble putting it down. Corrigan writes convincingly from the first-person perspective of a teenage boy, an impressive feat for a female author. Everything rings true, from the teenage vernacular to Emil's inner monologues regarding his brother, his relationship with his father, and his anxiety in dealing with the opposite sex.
The plot is dramatic but doesn't feel contrived, and the resolution feels real, almost to the point where if a studio was to make a movie out of the book, you could be sure they'd screw up the ending by changing it and making it more dramatic. The story is paced perfectly - alternating smoothly between advancing the plot and developing its protagonist.
The most impressive aspect of this book is that it doesn't insult its audience. I have no intentions of reading a bunch of teen lit books now but I'm sure its a genre populated mostly by crap. This book treats teens as young adults - still young and immature, but not the idiots that a lot of adults take teens to be. I think the story and the charcters will ring true for teenagers who are lucky enough to hear about this book.
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