Customer Reviews

Spooky Little Girl: A Novel

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3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
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I've known a lot of would-be writers who have wondered what the magic formula is that will make their novel a best-seller, instead of one that languishes on the back shelves of the local book store. There are a few things that you can do that will make your novel stand out, and one of the most important is to give the readers something that they haven't seen before - something that is a different than most of the stories that you've heard before.

After all, if you look at some of the more popular authors to come about recently, such as Stephanie Meyers, the common thread that they share is that they look at things differently. Sparkling vampires ring a bell?

That is exactly what Laurie Notaro does in her novel Spooky Little Girl. The story starts out normal enough - Lucy, who is a few months away from getting married, takes one last vacation with her friends. When she returns all of her belongings are out on the lawn and she has to wrestle a woman for her wedding dress, and her fiance won't talk to her or explain why he threw her stuff out on the lawn. She loses her job and heads to her down-on-her-luck sister's house to live. To complete the string of the worst luck anyone has ever had in the world, she walks out onto the street only to wind up waking up to discover that she's no longer living. She's dead. And to make matters even worse, she's not only dead, she's in ghost school!

Instead of the classic "someone dies, they haunt someone else or they go to heaven to watch their relatives", Notaro brings us the idea of ghost school, where the ghosts have to learn how to do ghostly haunting tricks. She answers questions like why there is occasionally a cold spot in your home, and why we see orbs. With her wonderful imagination, she looks at things with a different light, with the story swiftly moving the entire time.

At first you feel extremely sorry for Lucy - but you also see her as someone that you can relate to. After all, who hasn't had a string of bad luck that has made you wonder about your very existence?

This novel could definitely be classified as "chick-lit", but that doesn't mean that it's all fluff and no substance. Throughout the story, and the giggles, you learn a few little life lessons. And it is those lessons and the unique way of looking at the afterlife that truly makes Spooky Little Girl a quick and fun read. I am definitely looking forward to seeing if Notaro can continue to look at the world in a different way in her next novel!

I was excited when I saw Laurie Notaro had written a novel, as I had read her "Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club" last year and laughed myself silly.

Lucy Fisher is the main character and as the book opens she is returning from a vacation with some girlfriends as a celebration before she gets married to her boyfriend, Martin. The vacation does not go as planned, so she is rather anxious to be back home with Martin and her dog, Tulip. This is where the "%^(" really hits the fan though, because as the cab draws near she sees all of her belongings out on the lawn, the locks are changed, Martin won't call her back and Tulip is looked inside. She has nothing to do but put her stuff in her truck and bring it to her friend's house until she can find out what happened.

Just as she thinks it couldn't get worse she is fired from her job, for testing positive for cocaine, which in her memory she has not done since her tube top could fill itself out and keep it's shap unassisted.

What could be worse? Well, getting hit by a bus when you loan your vehicle to your sister and have to take the bus to the unemployment department. Nope, I kid you not, dead as a doornail.

Lucy wakes up to learn she has to go back to earth and finish her "assignment" before she is allowed to go to "The State", which is where all the dead people really want to be. Before she gets there though she will meet others who have had an unexpected demise and will learn the ropes from her teacher, Ruby on the basics of spooking.

I had to fill my husband in on the plot since there were several times that I had to read out loud some funny excerpt from the book. The book was light, fun and what I expected. If you like a good, funny read with a lovable heroine give this one a go. I enjoyed getting out of my life for a while and spending it with Lucy.

Hopefully, there will be more novels in Laurie Notaro's writing career, as I will definitely seek them out.

Spooky Little Girl by Laurie Notaro

What would you do if you just came home from a trip with the girls celebrating your bachelorette party to find everything you own except your dog, out on the front lawn and your fiancé not answering your phone calls? And then what would you do if when you went back to work only to find out you've been accused of embezzling and then you test positive for a drug you've not used since huge shoulder pads for women were in vogue? Well if your like most people you run to those you love and love you back and that just what Lucy Fisher does; she runs to her sisters. Unfortunately for Lucy, before she could reclaim her dog or find out what went wrong with her fiancé Martin, she gets hit by a bus and ends up in of all places- the "nearly hereafter". She then has to learn haunting 101 to be able to "complete her assignment on earth. And if she is able to fix whatever it is that needs fixing she will be able to make her way to her afterlife or The State. This is reminiscent of the 1991 movie "Defending Your Life" with Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep, yet still retains a fresh quality since Laurie has so many other ideas on what the hereafter holds and how ghosts will act while in it.

I really liked this book since it had all the elements of what I look for in a "beach read" - an unusual and fresh story, characters that are both lovable and eccentric, some you can you can identify with and some that you just want to hate (with a passion). And let's not forget the most important element of a funny, light-hearted contemporary novel - the Happily Ever After- and I do mean EVER after!

I really love everything Laurie writes, so when this was offered by the Vine program for me to review I jumped at the chance. Normally Laurie writes autobiography and only has one other fiction title under her belt. "There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble", with "Spooky Little Girl" as her second fiction I think she has made it clear that she is a force to be reckoned with in the light fiction/chick lit genres.

What can you say about a story that doesn't really start going until the main character dies? A whole lot of fun!

I fell in love with Lucy and all her friends at Ghost School but I also couldn't wait for her to start her "haunting assignment" because I knew that the answers as to why her life fell apart had to be found there. And the author reveals those answers like any good mystery writer would-slowly, a little bit at a time, until the dramatic climax. Oh, I can't tell you how much self control it took for me to not skip ahead because I just couldn't read fast enough! But in the end, the wait was definitely worth it.

Oh, and don't forget to read the "Author's Note" in the back of the book to meet the real Lucy Fisher. I like to think that she would be happy with the way her death turned out.

I've been a fan of Laurie Notaro for quite a while, having thoroughly enjoyed The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Lifeand We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Aliveamong others....

I'm often skeptical of no-fiction writers that take the leap to fiction but it this case, Laurie nails it. Spooky Little Girl is a modern day ghost story where the main character (Lucy Fisher) dies, wakes up in ghost school, and is sent back to earth to fulfill some sort of mission. I loved it from beginning to end. Great, great story. her fictional writing style reminds me of the hilarious Christopher Moore and if you are a fan of his, you will most likely enjoy this book.

I think the real kicker to my loving this book was revealed after I turned the final page and found a note from the author that said that the main character in this book was influenced by a real person. I thought it was really cool that Laurie gave Lucy a voice...

It was a definite treat to read this latest release by Laurie Notaro. SPOOKY LITTLE GIRL is the kind of book that creeps up under you and stays. No, this is not a horror or suspense novel. Instead it is a witty, intelligent look at life and how it effects all of us. We are introduced to our main character as she deals with many downs in her life. She has a horrible vacation, comes home to having all her belongings in her front yard and ultimately is fired from her job. Through these things we get to really know Lucy. She is not perfect and does not claim to be but she is totally endearing and when she gets hit by a bus and dies our hearts are ready to follow her on her journey in the hereafter.

And that is where the story really comes to life. Poor Lucy couldn't even die right and she ends up in the SUDDEN DEATH TRANSITION CENTER. She wasn't meant to die and needs to learn how to be a ghost so she can go back to earth as a ghost and earn her way into the true herafter, called THE STATE. There are so many chaters along the way to charm you like the teacher Ruby and all her fellow students. This is a quirky tale with many life lessons to tell along the way. They are small simple lessons that make you stop and think as you read. This is quality fiction that manages to take you away to another world. In its simplicity a truly worthy tale is told. Lucy is shocked when she sees what her assignment back in the real world is and she learns much about herself with the help of others to gain her entrance into THE STATE.

I highly recommend this novel but found that it did lack just a little of the true whimsy a novel like this needs to flow effortlessly as wit, humor and pathos mix to tell a true life tale. Very, very good but missing just a little something.

In the interest of honesty and full disclosure, I am a friend of Laurie's, so I am a bit biased. But I really, really loved this book. It's a lot of fun (expected), hard to put down (expected), and heartbreaking at times (not expected). Laurie is the master (or is it mistress?) of the non-fiction essay, and with Spooky she proves that she's whipping the world of fiction into line as well.

I will not bore you with a book report as so many reviewers have done. Get this book and read it for yourself! You will not be sorry. It's original and rather thought provoking in spite of being very funny. A good combination, I say!

Laurie Notaro is so freaking funny that I am always a little bit disappointed when she writes fiction...her life stories just crack me up so much. That being said this book is really cute and funny and just a fun, light-hearted read. It has a good story line, and a really nice message-and of course you can always see Laurie's humor peeking out from behind her characters. If you are a Notaro fan you will not be disappointed. This is just a great little book which goes to show that she (Notaro) can seamlessly stretch her writing from autobiographical to fiction and still have a hit. As always Laurie the time I spend reading your books is well spent!!!

I've been a fan of Laurie Notaro since I picked up the original Idiot's Girl book. Although not all of her books reach the extremely high standard set by the original, Spooky Little Girl definitely does!

Spooky Little Girl follows the protagonist through some of the worst (and unbeknownst to her, final) days of her life. After losing her fiance, home, and job in short order, Lucy gets hit by a bus. And that would be a very literal bus. When she wakes up after the accident, she's horrified to realize that she is not in a hospital or heaven. Instead, she's back in school, learning the finer points of being dead.

In a concept that I was concerned was going to be a little too much like Dead Like Me, Lucy has a job to do. The novel follows Lucy as she completes this task, while she is very much grieving. This grief is complicated by who and what her task is.

Although Spooky Little Girl is not the laugh-out-loud hilarious kind of book that Notaro typically writes, it is stunning. Lucy is a realistically drawn (undead) person. There are parts of the book where she is not very likable, but there are many more parts where the reader will be rooting for Lucy.

What can I say? I laughed. I cried. I finished the novel in one (work)night. I read it through beginning to end, and I've since recommended it to both my sister and my mother. Although it isn't her typical book, I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves Notaro.

This is one hauntingly hilarious novel! At first it isn't, when Notaro is torturing Lucy, the novel's main character. The first three chapters, as I read, I thought "Well, this is just awful! That poor girl! How much more can this author DO to this character?!" Then Notaro literally throws Lucy under a bus, and the hilarity ensues!

No, I'm serious! The novel gets really, really funny once Lucy bites the dust and wakes up in the spirit realm, because her story actually begins with getting hit by a bus. From there, she finds herself in a class for new ghosts called "Sudden Death 1118" but nicknamed "Suprise Demise." Because she didn't make the cut to go straight to "The State," the ultimate goal of every spirit, she gets another chance to right all her wrongs and tie up loose ends as a ghost. Her teacher is a fun little old lady-ghost named Ruby, and her classmates are colorful former people as well. They all met hilariously grisly fates. You'll see what I mean when you read this book and meet "Boobsicles." Another spirited spirit is Lucy's grandma Naunie, who gets kicked out of The State and sent back to haunt on earth some more, for penance. I won't tell you what she did to get kicked out of heaven, but it's really, really funny, if you're in the right mood when you read this book.

So there's all the otherworldy drama going on, all that about Lucy's Naunie jeopardizing both of their eternal lives, and Lucy's having to learn how to charge herself up on household appliances in order to properly manifest and haunt (apparently it's a difficult art to master!), and to figure out what her afterlife's mission is, to help her reach The State, while there's also quite a mystery going on with the still-living from Lucy's days as a living person. All that stuff from the first three chapters, when poor Lucy was just getting deeper and deeper into trouble is set-up for the rest of the story. You'll probably figure some things out before Lucy does. She's a little slow on the up-take, but most of the characters are. It makes for some interesting situations within the novel.

Although "Spooky Little Girl" does sort of follow a familiar arc, a bit like "Beetlejuice," it's also original in many details. The characters are so vivid, not only can I see "Spooky Little Girl" as a movie, I've also cast Naunie in my head already- "Big Love's Grace Zabriskie."

"Spooky Little Girl" is a hoot. I'm going to read it again closer to Halloween, but it's really good for any time of the year. And I will never think of "the Light" or patchouli the same way again. Now, somebody better get crackalackin' on a screenplay for this one!