Thursday, January 26, 2012

Anya's Ghost - Vera Brosgol

All Anya has ever wanted was a good friend.  


High school can be pretty hard for a girl who has an immigrant past, whose mother embarrasses her, who has a body image problem, and whose dream guy is in love with the school hottie.  But when Anya falls into a well while walking through the park, everything changes.


The well contains a skeleton of a young girl.  The ghost of the girl, named Emily, has been waiting for someone to find her since 1918, when she was killed.  And now someone has.


Emily attaches herself to Anya and becomes her best friend.  She helps Anya with her tests, she gives her fashion advice, and encourages her to go after the boy of her dreams.  


  














Emily tells Anya a sad story about a lost love and her untimely and unsolved murder.  But when Anya begins to research the crime in an attempt to solve it, she soon suspects Emily may not have been completely honest.  Once that cat is out of the bag,  things begin to turn sinister.





















My thoughts:  I truly enjoyed this book for many reasons.  First, this ill-intentioned ghost was so much fun in a creepy kind of way - sort of how you feel when you read Neil Gaiman.  (Brosgol was a storyboard artist for Coraline, so it all makes sense.)  Brosgol does a great job in transforming the image of a sweet, victimized girl to one with a terrifying glint in her eye.  It was totally Fatal Attraction-esque.


There are also good lessons here, such as respecting your parents, loving your body the way it is, and learning that the cute boy in school may not be all that nice.  Which makes this a perfect read for girls in the 12-14 age range.  This is an excellent debut from a talented artist...I look forward to her future work!  I want to thank Heather for the Christmas gift!  Lastly, I will leave you with a very cute book trailer...


       





4 out of 5 stars


16 comments:

Unknown said...

That is such a cute video! Is it wrong to wish the whole book was viewable in that way? I think I need to be locked up for suggesting video might be better than a book.

bermudaonion said...

This book sounds fabulous! I decided to see if our library has it and our system has one copy. One copy for the whole county.

Jenny said...

This looks so cute! I love the messages it has, and the illustrations look great too.

Serena said...

This sounds fascinating. I might give this one a try.

rhapsodyinbooks said...

I'm not really into graphic novels, once again being behind the times!

Darlene said...

While I'm not fond of graphic novels this one does look good and I really like the messages it contains.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

This one is a must on my TBR list, so I'm glad to see you liked it. We seem to have very similar tastes in graphic novels.

Unknown said...

I am going to have to suck it up and try a graphic novel, this one sounds perfect and I know a plethora of young girls who would enjoy it's message. Thanks for the review Sandy!

Zibilee said...

Oh, I am so glad you liked it! I wasn't sure what you would think, but I knew you liked graphic novels and ghost stories, so this seemed to fit. I have to admit that that ghost looks pretty creepy! I need to read this one soon. It looks like something I would enjoy. Thanks for the wonderful review and the shout-out today.

Kathleen said...

I'm very intrigued and since I've been wanting to read more graphic novels this year I will be adding this to my list!

Belle Wong said...

This sounds like a great read. Just checked and my library has a copy (well, more like 32 copies). Putting in a request for it right now.

Jenners said...

Oh this sounds so good. Great review … I loved how you walked us through it and got us all excited.

Heidenkind said...

I love how you compare this to Fatal Attraction. I might have to give it a try!

Julie P. said...

Sounds terrific for Booking Daughter!

Dawn @ sheIsTooFondOfBooks said...

I've got to read more graphic novels - this sounds absolutely delightful!

I'll check our library system - wonder if we have more than one copy, like Kathy's county ...

Beth F said...

THis sounds great. I love GNs. I just placed a hold on this -- all three copies are out from the library.