The Ghost and the Goth

Review of: The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade
Release date: June 29th, 2010
Pages: 281
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Received for review by: Disney Hyperion
Overall grade: A

Alona Dare is your typical popular girl. She's co-captain of the cheerleading squad and Homecoming queen for 3 years in a row. Now Alona is also dead; hit by a school bus leaving school early one morning.

Will Killian is an outcast who just wishes that ghosts would stop pestering him. Yes, that is correct. Will can hear and see ghosts and vis versa. All the ghosts ever want is help from Will to send messages to their loved ones and Will can't stand it. It also doesn't help that his psychiatrist just wants to throw him in the loony bin. So of course when Alona realizes that Will can see and hear her he's not too happy about it. She's always asking him questions about the afterlife and why is she still stuck on earth and not up in heaven.

When Alona starts being Will's "spirit guide" he isn't too sure about the situation but then he realizes it might not be such a bad thing after all. Especially if it can help him get rid of the big shadowy ghost that seems like its out to kill him. Now all Alona and Will have to do is get along..

This was an excellent read. Alona and Will are constantly at each others throats throughout most of the book and it makes for a good laugh. The chapters are told in Will's point of view and in Alona's point view. They switch every chapter and I really liked that. You get to be in each character's head for a short period of time. I also liked how hard it was for Alona to say even one little nice thing about someone. Overall this was just an entertaining, and at certain times serious read. Be on the lookout for the next book in the trilogy. Queen of the Dead will be released in the Summer of 2011.