Rating: 2.5/5



I was looking forward to this book, after reading Anna Dressed in Blood. More ghost stories! I didn’t expect them to be the same. In fact, I wanted them to be very different. And they are. I will not compare the two as they are different books and I believe a book review is based on the book’s sole merit rather than a comparison. The book has a relative low rating. After some thought I decided to give it .5 more points than originally intended. I gave the author two points because

Rating: 2.5/5



I was looking forward to this book, after reading Anna Dressed in Blood. More ghost stories! I didn’t expect them to be the same. In fact, I wanted them to be very different. And they are. I will not compare the two as they are different books and I believe a book review is based on the book’s sole merit rather than a comparison. The book has a relative low rating. After some thought I decided to give it .5 more points than originally intended. I gave the author two points because I like the idea, though it isn’t new (actually, the Ghost Whisperer … you know the TV show with Jennifer Love Hewitt, which I actually like… my guilty pleasure… along side with Charmed – the older seasons) it’s been an idea I would have love to see in book form. This is the book form though not as good as I hoped or expected (see “overall” paragraph for the rest of two points giving reason).



Miranda can see ghosts after an accident involving her brother and best friend. Her family decides to go to York in the United Kingdom because of both father and mother happened to have job related things there. This brings me to the first issue of the book for me. Everything felt forced. I mean everything. Parents happened to share a job in the same city even though their job are completely different – one scholarly and the other drama. I nodded and continued on, trying not to let it bother me. I mean having one parent getting a job contract and the family going there because they decided it to be a family vacation at the same time I would buy more easily, but the way its written, it seems as if Morris was trying very hard to make readers accept the fact that the Tennants had to go to York.



Another unnatural – and I don’t mean in a flattery kind and pun unintended – flow with the book is the interaction and dialogue between characters. This also felt very forced. From Rob, the older brother calling the protagonist Dormouse and her father calling her Verandah. It shook me out of the book every time they used it. Yes, there were reasons as to why she got called that but they were a stretch for me to believe. It didn’t feel right or true, instead it felt like an added detail the author wanted to put in to make our protagonist unique and different, along with the people using the pet names. The only times the book felt realistic and natural was when Miranda and Nick were together. Then there’s the issue of the family. Each character was given a role and they acted that role. It was like watching a play done by first time actors… you could feel the awkwardness and awareness between the characters all because they seemed to be trying to hard to play their characters. The whole Tennant family was that. Rob was written in a way to be the annoying older brother, Peggy the concerned but willful ignorant mother, and Jeff the wanna-be happy-go-lucky dad. They were suppose to be these types of people but they came off very - again it’s like and broken record – forced.



Then there was the conflicting details or lack there of. Miranda didn’t want to be in York. When her parents suggested touring the city, she loathe it. Yet, when she describes the scenery everything is described with positive enjoyable metaphors, similes, and words, which made Miranda sound like she actually liked York and wanted to explore it…. but she didn’t want to be there? Did she just not want to spend the day with her parents? That I could understand and it should have been made more clear, but it wasn’t. Then there’s the issue of Nick and why he believed a certain someone. I saw the reasoning that was given, and then I wanted to see why that reasoning work…. the why was never given. Oh and then comes Rob’s obsession with Sally. That too felt forced. Why did Rob show interest in Sally now when before he showed no girls any interest (after the accident of course) before… a the reason was given I was like… on very unsurprising…. please don’t let that be the reason. Yeah, I don’t buy the reason. New place? No. Love at first sight? Gag me. These were all easy way outs. Simple explanations to give the characters and plot an easy excuse to move forward, when the situation the characters were in were nothing but simple.



One last thing, the book read like a York travel guide, giving bits and pieces of York history. It was too obvious and inserted in. The snippets of York info wasn’t smoothly pushed it. More than a few of the York travel guide information were not necessary to the overall plot, lacking any relevance to the story.



The ending was its saving point. The pace picked up very well and I, finally, was sucked into the book. Though the scene where they (Miranda and co.) were picking through the pieces and putting together the reasons (of the plot) was a little too convenient (which also they came to a nice conclusion a little too easily). This was where the additional .5 point came in.



Overall, I liked the idea of a ghost whisperer in book form. I liked the background info on the characters (the accident), which would have made them all interesting characters, but the way the characters and setting was conveyed, they came off stiff, formal, and unrealistic. The interaction between Nick and Miranda were the only realistic moments, moments I can believe and accept. All others the characters seemed to be playing a role to move the story along.



Verdict: I would skip this one. I may read Morris’ first book Ruined, but if it’s similarly written like this book, I will have a hard time reading it. If you must read it, I suggest the library.



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