ghostgirl [Hardcover]

Tonya Hurley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2008 | Series: ghostgirl (Book 1)

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

And if I should die before I awake,

I pray the popular attend my wake.

Charlotte Usher feels practically invisible at school, and then one day she really is invisible. Even worse: she's dead. And all because she choked on a gummy bear. But being dead doesn't stop Charlotte from wanting to be popular; it just makes her more creative about achieving her goal.

If you thought high school was a matter of life or death, wait till you see just how true that is. In this satirical, yet heartfelt novel, Hurley explores the invisibility we all feel at some times and the lengths we'll go to be seen.

Praise for ghostgirl:

* Polished dark-and-deadpan humor, it's a natural fit with Gen Y, too." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

* "[Tonya] beats out witty teen-speak like a punk-band drummer, keeping the narrative fast-paced and fun yet thought-provokingly heartwarming. Goofy, ghastly, intelligent, electrifying." --Kirkus (starred review)

*"Tim Burton and Edgar Allan Poe devotees will die for this fantastic, phantasmal read." --School Library Journal (starred review)

* "Readers with a taste for black humor and satire will feast on Hurley's crisp, wise dialogue. Anticipate a well deserved cult following." --VOYA (starred review)

"Written with deadpan wit...this is a 'Wonderful Life'-like tale." -New York Post

"A sincere (and humorous) exploration of how we all feel invisible at one time or another...perfect read." -CosmoGirl

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 7 Up—Charlotte User, an invisible loser, dies just before enacting a plan to catch the cutest guy in school and achieve popularity. She refuses to accept her fate (death by gummy bear) and returns as a ghost with a mission: to go to the Fall Ball with Damen and get a midnight kiss. Hurley combines afterlife antics, gothic gore, and high school hell to produce an original, hilarious satire. Charlotte ambles through death's door and remains a pitiable, selfish, and somewhat annoying heroine. Readers root for her, but cringe at her blunders, too. She blows off her new dead-kid school and classmates, unable to give up her living, breathing crush. Hurley's pitch-perfect dialogue and clever names (Petula, Rotting Rita, Principal Styx) keep readers laughing. Dark, meditative song lyrics and poetry start each chapter while campy, Gothic illustrations frame the pages. Tim Burton and Edgar Allan Poe devotees will die for this fantastic, phantasmal read.—Shelley Huntington, New York Public Library
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About the Author

ghostgirl author Tonya Hurley's credits span all platforms of teen entertainment including: creating, writing and producing two hit TV series, writing and directing several acclaimed independent films, developing a ground-breaking collection of video games and board games and creating and providing content for award-winning websites. Ms. Hurley lives in New York with her husband and daughter. Her Web site is www.ghostgirl.com.

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316113573
• ISBN-13: 978-0316113571
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #466,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times bestselling ghostgirl author, Tonya Hurley, has credits spanning all platforms of teen entertainment including: creating, writing and producing two hit TV series, writing and directing several acclaimed independent films, developing a ground-breaking collection of video games and board games and creating award-winning websites. Hurley's films have premiered in film festivals around the world including TriBeca, LA Independent, and Edinburgh and her work has been featured on ABC, IFC and PBS. She was nominated for the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Award in film.

Her first novel, ghostgirl, which is now also available in paperback, was an instant best-seller and has received starred reviews from the literary publications Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, VOYA and School Library Journal. Her second book in the series, ghostgirl Homecoming, was featured on Ace of Cakes along with Harry Potter and was released July 1, 2009. ghostgirl Lovesick, the third book in teh series, will be released July 12, 2010. The ghostgirl audiobooks, narrated by Parker Posey with original music by Vince Clarke, are available for digital download at www.audible.com.

Ms. Hurley lives in New York with her husband and daughter. Her Web site is www.ghostgirl.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't Judge this book by its cover October 14, 2008

By Sierra

Format:Hardcover

As sad as it is to admit, the cover of this book is what immediately grabbed my attention. Unfortunately, the cover is better than the book.

Student, Charlotte, feels invisible at her high school and courtesy of a freak accident, literally becomes invisible following her death when she becomes a ghost.

The plot of Ghost Girl is stellar and seems like it should be a great read. Unfortunately, it falls short of expectations.

First, the book is riddled with corny death jokes. They're everywhere and seem to pop up at every other paragraph. Most of these jokes are eye-rolling, groan-inducing, and due to the vast number of them present, become irritating quickly.

Second, and this may be my personal peeve, but the author, or should I say "Charlotte" belittles genuine illnesses. I.E., one student ghost was said to have died from self injury. The moral of this student's story is that she she didn't cut herself well-enough and died from not being half-hearted in her attempts.
Charlotte later picks at her enemy for being anorexic.

Ignoring my personal distastes for the books, one of the primary reasons Ghost Girl is receiving two stars is while the plot is wonderful, the characters are not. They're one dimensional and fit the archetypal role to a tee.
Charlotte is the typical poor "nobody notices me, everybody hates me" girl. She sticks so closely to this role, in fact, that she becomes quite irritating and near impossible to relate to or even like. Charlotte's incessant tendency to judge and demean everyone around her while still having the audacity to pull the "woe is me, nobody understands me" card is off-putting.

While Charlotte is the main character and the entire text is about her, I felt that I didn't know her - nor did I particularly care to.

Petula, Charlotte's enemy, is also a flat character and sticks to the pretentious bully archetype. Her characterization is also over-dramatized and thus difficult to believe. It would have been wonderful if Hurley had offered some explanation for why Petula is the way she is, does Petula grow, what does she offer? Instead, she's flat, boring and extremely predictable - as most of the characters are.

In Ghost Girl, there's almost no mention of parents or family. Hurley's excuse for this? Because teens are too self-centered to have concern for their family. This seemed like a weak excuse and as if this "rule" may have been added as a fleeting afterthought.

It also seemed as if Ghost Girl had no editor. The number of mistakes throughout the book were numerous. For example, during Charlotte's criticism of anorexics, she mentioned "BMI index", which translates to "body mass index index." There are also several times when Hurley described a comment as "sarcastic" when it did not fit the definition of sarcasm. In fact, it seemed like every comment that every character made was "sarcastic," as each bit of conversation would end with "she said with sarcasm." or "she said, sarcastically."
This is without including the vast number of grammatical errors.

Finally, Hurley breaks several of the rules she sets for ghosts. Earlier in the book, it states that ghosts are unable to physically interact with the living or objects in the livings' time, and her body simply goes through objects or people she tries to touch. Later, Charlotte is hugging her crush and receives a "make-under" by a living person. The objects used don't "pass" through her and she's able to touch her crush and the other living person.

Also, Hurley states that Charlotte's real name is Charles early on in the text and she changed her name to Charlotte during her "make-over" attempt that year in high school. However, nobody recognized her as "Charles", students she says she's known for years prior to her name change all automatically know her "new name" is Charlotte and when she dies, the ghosts know of her new name as well, despite that this name-change is relatively new and she never appears to inform anyone of it.

Inconsistencies such as the above are all through the text. One minute Hurley makes a rule for Charlotte or states a fact about Charlotte, ten pages later the rule is broken and the fact, no longer existent.

The actual tone of the book is irregular. It passes through humble and full of awe to corny and conceited. While Charlotte is supposedly invisible and has little self-esteem, she manages to look down her nose at everyone.

To summarize, I loved the plot and was greatly looking forward to reading this book. However, it was such a disappointment that I plan to return it after I locate the receipt.
The characters are predictable and extremely irritating. The death puns, also irritating. And the plot never seemed to thoroughly develop.

If you're looking for an engrossing book that will leave you entranced. Keep looking.
This isn't it.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too August 5, 2008

By TeensReadToo

Format:Hardcover

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
And if I should die before I awake,
I pray the popular attend my wake."

This is the year for Charlotte Usher. The year that she's finally going to be noticed. She's finally going to have what she's always wanted: to be a popular girl and fit in with the head cheerleader in the school, Petula Kensington. She feels that the first day of school will be the start of her new life. She'll finally have the attention of the most popular guy in school, Damen. Who is, of course, Petula's boyfriend.

In a way she does start a new life. Although it's actually her afterlife. Poor Charlotte chokes on a red gummy bear just before she leaves her first period physics class and dies. Her hopes of starting over fresh and finally being noticed for once are all crushed in an instant. Especially when she finds out that she still has to graduate even though she's dead! There's a whole class of students from her school who have died and are still attending classes there.

Charlotte isn't giving up, though. She's still determined to win over Damen. And with the help of Scarlet Kensington (Petula's younger sister) she's sure she'll be able to do it. Scarlet can actually see Charlotte and Charlotte isn't about to let that fact go to waste. She figures she can hang out in Scarlet's body and get through to Damen that way. But her new dead classmates aren't liking Charlotte's plans too much and are making it incredibly hard for her to get anything done. Plus, the more time Scarlet spends time with Damen (when Charlotte isn't in her body, that is) the more Scarlet is starting to like Damen herself.

Charlotte is determined to be noticed. She thinks that if she can just get noticed and be popular that she'll finally move on. But is popularity really what Charlotte needs? Or is it just finally realizing that you don't have to be the center of attention to matter?

This book was great. I couldn't really guess what would happen throughout the book, which I always like. Poor Charlotte has such a rough time! Especially in the beginning of her afterlife. But she pulls through and even learns a valuable lesson along the way. I loved Scarlet's character. The way she acts towards her sister is hilarious. They are total opposites in every way. I loved all the nicknames the other dead students have, too. And I thought the ending was cute. It might not have been totally realistic, but then again this book wasn't really all that realistic in the first place. So I thought the ending fit pretty perfectly. I highly suggest checking this book out.

Reviewed by: Breanna F.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Misguided "Redemption" Ruins Book October 29, 2009

By Whitney

Format:Hardcover

Like most of the reviewers here, I do have to say that I picked up this book because of its stunning cover and art. The designers really outdid themselves with this. Unfortunately that is basically the only great thing about this book.

The characters, particularly our heroine Charlotte, are completely one-dimensional. I have no problem with teenagers (or adults really) acting stupidly, but there's a complete lack of any rational thinking in this book.

I also have to echo many other reviewers about the dearth of adults in this book. I counted only 5 or 6 adult characters, only one of whom (Mr. Brain) could even be called a supporting character. I find it very hard to believe that not a single teenager in this book has a relationship with their parents. Even though we spend quite a bit of time in Scarlet and Petula's home, their parents are completely absent. Charlotte even mentions that she lived with a "court-appointed guardian," but there is no mention of why (p. 110). When I read this, I thought this might explain some of Charlotte's attachment issues (particularly since it is suggested that said guardian didn't pay much attention to her), but this was never explored in the book. We never even learn what happened to her biological parents.

But the real reason I'm reviewing this book is the way it treats young people with serious disabilities. The book seems to suggest that Suzy the scratcher couldn't "commit" to ending her life in one fell swoop (p.82)? Does Ms. Hurley not realize that there is a very high probability that someone reading her book is a self-mutilator, since this book is geared toward teenage girls? What kind of message does this send to them? While all self harm is a serious medical issue, it is not always an attempt at suicide.

Then... the part of the book that made me mad I actually finished it: In the epilogue we discover that Sam Wolfe, a very minor character who was a mentally-challenged member of the A/V Club, is not actually mentally-challenged. No! He's just been pretending this whole time (presumably for his entire academic career?) because it's "survival of the fitting in" (p. 327). How in the world does this make any sense? We're supposed to believe that Sam is actually perfectly bright (he's shown reading the Wall Street Journal in the epilogue, and we all know that not a single mentally-challenged person would ever be able to read the WSJ </sarcasm>), but that he's pretending to be disabled because this would make him fit in and become less of a target for jocks and queen bees. How does setting yourself apart help you fit in? Practically the only times we see Sam he is being ridiculed by Petula or abused by Bradley Grayson, a lacrosse jock. I'm sorry but this is just insulting, and completely unnecessary. Sam's character actually seemed like one of the most believable in the book. He was a mentally-challenged student who got a lot of flack from the more popular kids, a story I'm sure reflects the lives of some, if not most, real mentally-challenged young adults. There was no need for his character to receive "redemption" (if that's what we can call this misguided portion of the epilogue). God forbid there be a truly mentally-challenged character in a young adult book.

I know this is a very minor point, but added with the lackluster plot and paper-thin characters, this last straw was simply too much. I do not recommend this book for anyone, particularly the young adults it was written for.