The Ghost and the Goth
After a close encounter with a bus, Alona Dare goes from homecoming queen to Queen of the Dead. She's stuck as a ghost in the land of the living with no sign of the big, bright light to take her to a better place. To make matters worse, the only person who might be able to help her is Will Killian, a total loser outcast. \ More than anything, Will wishes he didn't have the rare ability to communicate with the dead, especially the former mean girl of Groundsboro High. He's not filling out any...
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After a close encounter with the front end of a school bus, Alona Dare goes from Homecoming Queen to Queen of the Dead. Now she’s stuck as a spirit in the land of the living with no sign of the big, bright light to take her away. To make matters worse, the only person who might be able to help her is Will Killian, a total loser outcast. He alone can see and hear (turns out he’s been “blessed” with the ability to communicate with the dead), but he wants nothing to do with the former mean girl of Groundsboro High.Alona has never needed anyone for anything, and now she’s supposed to expose her deepest, darkest secrets to this pseudo-goth boy? Right. She’s not telling anyone what really happened the day she died, not even to save her eternal soul. And Will’s not filling out any volunteer forms to help her cross to the other side. He only has a few more weeks until his graduation, when he can strike out on his own and find a place with less spiritual interference. But he has to survive and stay out of the psych ward until then. Can they get over their mutual distrust—and the weird attraction between them—to work together before Alona vanishes for good and Will is locked up for seeing things that don’t exist?Publishers WeeklyThe sneering heroine of Kade's debut novel, the aptly named Alona, rules her high school's social scene with an iron fist. Alona has secrets, but before readers can discover them, she gets killed ("God, buses are so ugly when you see them that close up"). While Alona is learning to cope with the fact that a ghost can't be the center of attention (and that her friends aren't as genuine as she believed them to be), her narration alternates with that of one of her former classmates, Will, a social outcast fighting a diagnosis of mental illness. Will, in fact, can see and speak with the dead, who overwhelm him with their demands to take care of last requests. Alona is part of the clamoring crowd at first, and by the time she learns to work with Will, it might be too late for him to avoid the mental hospital and make it to graduation. Bumpy initially, the story becomes steadily more engrossing as Kade finds her feet stylistically and her characters' voices and identities develop. Ages 12-up. (July)
\ Publishers WeeklyThe sneering heroine of Kade's debut novel, the aptly named Alona, rules her high school's social scene with an iron fist. Alona has secrets, but before readers can discover them, she gets killed ("God, buses are so ugly when you see them that close up"). While Alona is learning to cope with the fact that a ghost can't be the center of attention (and that her friends aren't as genuine as she believed them to be), her narration alternates with that of one of her former classmates, Will, a social outcast fighting a diagnosis of mental illness. Will, in fact, can see and speak with the dead, who overwhelm him with their demands to take care of last requests. Alona is part of the clamoring crowd at first, and by the time she learns to work with Will, it might be too late for him to avoid the mental hospital and make it to graduation. Bumpy initially, the story becomes steadily more engrossing as Kade finds her feet stylistically and her characters' voices and identities develop. Ages 12-up. (July)\ \ \ \ \ School Library JournalGr 8 Up—Alona Dare was the most popular girl in her high school class, or at least she was until she was run over by a school bus. Returning to the scene of her death as a ghost, she anticipates overwhelming grief at her untimely death. To her surprise, her classmates quickly move on. Not only that, but weird outcast Will Killian can see and hear her. Alona, used to getting her own way, haunts Will until he agrees to help her figure out how to progress from ghosthood to the big white light that she keeps expecting. Will has problems of his own; namely that every ghost in Groundsboro High, including a seething black mass of energy, now knows that he can see them, and they all want him to carry out their last wishes. Will and Alona have to work together to get the ghosts to stop tormenting Will, and to figure out exactly what Alona has to do in order to move on from this world. Their new relationship is full of surprises as they each experience a side of the other that neither expected. This tale of friendship from unexpected corners shows how two people can grow tremendously over time. The tale is absorbing, and Kade successfully portrays a typical present-day high school. This novel will appeal to fans of romances and ghost stories alike.—Laura Amos, Newport News Public Library, VA\ \
