Customer Reviews

Ruined: A Novel

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(73)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a nutshell: Pleasantly Surprised.

When I first started this novel I worried that it would be an angsty, teenage complaint fest. It does start off that way a bit. But then angst and complaints are not an unexpected reaction from a fifteen year old who has been taken out of her school and sent off to live with an 'aunt' for the next six months.

Fifteen year old Rebecca's father, a high powered tech consultant, has to travel to out of the country for an extended business trip. Not wanting to burden the elderly neighbor who normally looks after Rebecca during short business trips he packs her off to stay with 'Aunt' Claudia a Tarot card reader (and something of a clairvoyant) and Claudia's daughter Aurelia in post Katrina New Orleans.

Moving away from her friends would have been bad enough but Aunt Claudia's damp, strange, shotgun style house is stuffed to the rafters with Voodoo talismans, monkey skulls, Buddha statues and the like. Topping that off she's also been enrolled in a snooty, upper-crust, school where friends are few and far between.

Upon spying several of the popular kids sneaking into a nearby cemetery late one night she follows to see what they're up to. After nearly being caught eves dropping on the partying teenagers she runs into Lisette who helps her escape unseen.

After several more chance encounters she learns Lisette is the ghost of a girl about her age who met a horrible end and is told about a terrible curse laid over a hundred years ago on one of her new schoolmate's families.

The story paces well. I finished it rather quicker than expected. It's well written. An easy read. It moves enjoyably from beginning to a rather dramatic and exciting ending. This was categorized on Amazon as 'Juvenile Fiction' but I feel that it will appeal to adults and teens alike who are looking for a bit of light reading.

Without giving too much away, this book is a great New Orleans ghost story. It offers the younger reader (I would say tween and up) some nice info about the city, especially Mardi Gras, and a little history. The author makes the main character real and easy for the reader to relate to. There are also some underlying messages of racism, privilege, and bullying. The character does do some things a parent wouldn't like (such as sneaking out of the house at night to go into a graveyard) but nothing that is not in the realm of many teens' imaginations. I read it an immediately passed it onto my daughter, who is appreciating the story and now wanting to learn more about New Orleans history. Most of the main characters are female, but it isn't about fashion, hairstyles, etc. that would preclude it from a boy. Overall, I thought it was a great ghost story that wasn't overly scary and not inappropriate for a younger reader. Nice treat for Halloween-time!!

This book was as much a historic delight as a ghost story delight. I really enjoyed learning so much about New Orleans past and felt I could really picture the setting of the story because the author spent so much time describing New Orlean's past and present. Every time I pass a cemetary now I get disappointed knowing that in New Orleans there are these elaborate tombs and elevated cemeteries.

I could tell that this book was written with a lot of love. The author put care into even the most despicable characters which made the book that much better. It was written so well, too. I felt like I wasn't reading, rather sneaking into the Lafayette Cemetary with Rebecca and watching the parades of Mardi Gras.

Exhilarting. That's what that last half of the book was. I never knew what was going to happen and when it did I had to have an inhaler on hand. It was the kind of ghost story I used to hear around my campfire (less paranormal and more human) and I think those are the scariest. The ghost had history and her own character and after I really was connected to her story then something happened that totally threw me off. In a good way. I didn't know what to believe until the end!

I reccommend this to anyone who likes history and truly just a well told story. It didn't have any superficial layers. If you like ghosts and curses you'll love the way this story fans out. I think the author did a fabulous job and I can't wait to read her again!

This book is wonderful. I really loved the story. I just finished reading the book yesterday. I was reading the book for 3 hours strait. The way that this book is written the words, the emotions, very thing, it makes you feel like you are in New Orleans. The book has some parts that are scary, romantic, and more. If there was a movie I would watch it on the first day. I loved all of the chapters in this mysterious book. i took me about 2 weeks to finish reading this book. I was amazed at the story of Rebecca Brown. Paula Morris is such a great author and I think she is one of my top 10 (she is on first place to me). I think there should be a sequel to this story. And if there was one out now I would buy it and read it every day and never put it down. Anyone who likes mysteries and ghosts and more should read this book and if Paula Morris makes a sequel please read it too!!!
Thanks for reading my review!

From the very first page, it is clear that Rebecca is going to be in trouble. She is sent to New Orleans to stay with an 'aunt' while her father works in China. While this may all seem contrived at first, the setting in New Orleans is vibrant and well told. What fifteen-year-old has ever appreciated being picked up and moved to a new city and new school to live with a relative she has only ever met once? And this relative? Aunt Claudia reads Taro Cards for tourists, dresses like a gypsy, and lives in a tiny house that leans so far to one side that it almost touches the next door house. Her first warning? Rebecca should not go in the cemetery across the street.

It keeps getting worse for Rebecca. The girls in her school are especially troublesome: the daughters of privilege, they are used to getting their own way. But there are two families who are especially troublesome, the Bowmans and the Suttons. And a boy, of course, helps liven up the mix.

A new Orleans Mardi Gras is a lot more complicated than what the average tourist sees and this makes very interesting reading. While the history of the story is pretty glossed over with the stories of the parades and Krewes, it is still very well described.

Add one ghost and this makes a great story. Doesn't it seem like teenage girls always get the bad end of the deal in a ghost story? This one is no exception while being somewhat predictable.

This is a very good high interest book for pre-adolescent and adolescent girls. It would also work well with reading groups in a middle school setting, and perhaps with some fifth graders.

Fifteen-year-old New Yorker Rebecca Brown must stay in New Orleans with her Aunt Claudia while her dad takes a business trip to China. While spying on another group of kids, she meets a ghost in Lafayette Cemetery. Rebecca must get to the bottom of a 155 year old murder mystery and break a voodoo curse. Cue creepy music...good old-fashioned ghost story ensues.

I read this book in one sitting while my car was being repaired. I can tell how much I like a book based on how much I remember about it once I've finished reading. This one entertained and engaged me throughout.

There are some nice plot twists, the main character is engaging, and the reader will be pulling for her throughout the story. Crack open this book on a rainy day and have yourself a fun, creepy read.

As a twentysomething-year-old male, I can safely say that Paula Morris's `Ruined: A Ghost Story' was not targeted for someone like me. However, I'm a big fan of young-adult fiction (especially as I begin to build a library for my future family) so I'm open to anything.

The story of `Ruined' focuses on a young girl, Rebecca, who is forced to move to post-Katrina New Orleans after her father is sent overseas for work for six months. Living with her eccentric Aunt Claudia and cousin Aurelia, she becomes interested in a rundown graveyard, of which Aunt Claudia ordered her not to enter due to criminals that sometimes lurk there. As most teens do, she didn't listen to these wise words and enters the graveyard. There, she meets the sweet and lonely Lisette, a ghost with an urge for vengeance.

Paula Morris did very well with this novel. It manages to blend the supernatural elements of New Orleans, the beauty of the city, and the angst of the teen life into one interesting and well paced novel. The history within the book is extremely fascinating and made the "horror" story all the more intriguing. The first half of the novel is great build up and does well to flesh out the characters. The latter parts of the book are extremely well done and exciting. Very rarely do you truly get exhilarated by young adult fiction like this, especially as an adult, but when it happens. . . it's a real pleasure.

Overall, Paula Morris's debut novel "Ruined" is a fantastic work of young adult fiction that will be a treat for young and old, and everything in between.
Final Verdict: 8/10.

-AP3-

I was smitten with the writing after the first few pages. The author really knows how to use language to set the mood, this is a very gifted writer.
The story moved along very smoothly, and I finished the book eagerly after two long sessions. I had a hard time putting it down!
The story is about a young girl, sent to live with her aunt in New Orleans, who finds herself witness to old family grudges and a bit of voodoo magick. It is indeed a ghost story, with one of the main characters being the ghost of Lisette, a young black girl that Rebecca, the main character, meets and befriends in the dark of night in the cemetery off 6th St.
I felt I got a good refresher of history of New Orleans, and I even learned a bit.
The ending is quite dramatic, and a bit more violent that I'd have expected for young adult literature, so I think it will appeal best to older teens and even adults. I'd give it 5 stars, but I'm left feeling there were ends related to consequences that were not tied up very well. It was as if some people got away really criminal things there at the end.
I'll definitely be looking for other works of fiction by this author though. I was totally enchanted by her use of language, it was so very easy and flowing, yet it really set the mood SO well.

Elegantly written and featuring subtle historical and political references, author Paula Morris has crafted a compelling story. Her characters are believable and interesting, and the text balances vivid detail with brevity.
A page turner from page one!


Themes:
-class and social status
-cultural differences between the North and South of the united States
-reconstruction of New Orleans after the Katrina
-history of New Orleans
-being different than peers and maneuvering social situations in high school

Ruined is a novel that masks itself as a ghost story when what it really is, is a story about old betrayals, old families and old curses.

Rebecca is living in New York with her father when suddenly she is shipped off to her `aunt' Claudia in New Orleans (a voodoo/witch who keeps creepy monkey skulls in the guest room) practically another country and time period away. Her `incarceration' is to last six months, her father's in China on a business trip, and include enrollment at a new school complete with uniforms and snotty rich girls. But these girls aren't your typical snotty rich girls, they are aristocrats among worker bees, members of the `old families' who started New Orleans and are just oozing money and attitude.

The worker bees (other Pleb kids) at school eye Rebecca warily not sure where she fits into their quaint Romanesque social class system, and Rebecca frankly could really care less. All she want to do is deal with this lapse in her father's judgment for six months then go back to her and her father's apartment and of course all of her non snotty friends and non uniformed co-ed school. Unfortunately curiosity gets the better of her one night; she follows `Them' (rich snotty kids) in to a cemetery and ends up bumping in to a ghost. Ah, here is where the ghost part of the story comes in. The ghost's name is Lisette and both she and Rebecca realize that they are entangled far deeper than either realize.

You see children old towns filled with old families tend to have a lot of history behind them, and not all of the history is good, some in fact is quite devious. Rebecca ends up falling head first into `Their' lives and all that messiness that entails. Quite a good read I say.

Soooo, I would definitely recommend this, maybe wait until it comes out in paperback if you don't want to pay the $17, but a great read rich in New Orleans culture and spice.