It's been six months since his girlfriend died in an automobile accident, but Franklin can't consign Rosey to the past tense, as his mother, his best friend and his psychiatrist all urge him to do. He doesn't want to forget Rosey, not for one momentAher love for oldies rock-and-roll, the one-liners she attributes to her Japanese ancestors, the way she nestles in his arms, her legs intertwined with his. So deep is his need for her that his anguish draws her back from the deadAnot as a living human, but as a ghost. Alternating between third-person narration in the present and Lin's first-person journal, which recounts his memories of Rosey, Hawes (Tales from the Cafeteria) generally skirts the maudlin and the melodrama inherent in her plot. But here the conceit of a ghost interacting with living characters has none of the subtlety of, for example, Adele Griffin's The Other Shepards; the characters are not fully fleshed out, so the psychiatrist and all the other adults, including Rosey's grandmother (the only person besides Lin who can see Rosey), come off as stereotypical. While Lin and Rosey are better realized, Rosey as a ghost strangely reverts into a somewhat childish state, lacking the sophistication that made her so attractive in life. The perspective here seems more adult than adolescent, making some of the dialogue strained. While there are some nice moments between Lin and Rosey, the novel misses its mark. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From School Library Journal
Grade 7-9-Last summer, 17-year-old Franklin lost "his girl" Rosey in a fatal car accident and he is inconsolable. Six months of time, counseling, and medication have left him no better. As the miracle of true love would have it, Rosey returns as an apparition, visible only to Lin (as she calls him). She is caught between two worlds. She has returned to console her grief-stricken boyfriend, yet she yearns for her natural place in some peaceful unknown. Franklin tries to ignore her inexplicable longing for something out of his world. He masks his disappointment that she's reduced to shattered light particles when he tries to touch her. Although he is able to see Rosey, he remains blind to the obvious-she is weaning him of his dependency on their past, awakening him to the life that surrounds him, and introducing him to the possibilities in his future. Readers learn about the couple's past relationship from journal entries that Franklin keeps for his psychiatrist. There's a light-handedness to this story that's reminiscent of a tepid teen version of the movie Ghost. This book is not about mourning; it's a sweet (if artificial) tonic to temper the loneliness of loss. Marion Dane Bauer's On My Honor (Clarion, 1986) and Peter Pohl's I Miss You, I Miss You! (Farrar, 1999) are more realistic novels about the gaping hole that sudden death exacts.
Alison Follos, North Country School, Lake Placid, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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