Ghosting

by Edith Pattou

Overview

On a hot summer night in a midwestern town, a high school teenage prank goes horrifically awry. Alcohol, guns, and a dare. Within minutes, as events collide, innocents becomes victims—with tragic outcomes altering lives forever, a grisly and unfortunate scenario all too familiar from current real-life headlines. But victims can also become survivors, and as we come to know each character through his/her own distinctive voice and their interactions with one another, we see how, despite pain and guilt, they can reach out to one another, find a new equilibrium, and survive.

Told through multiple points of view in naturalistic free verse and stream of consciousness, this is an unforgettable, haunting tale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781477847893
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	08/19/2014
Pages:	423
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Edith Pattou is the author of the New York Times bestselling picture book, Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden, as well as three award-winning fantasy novels for young adults, including East, which was chosen one of the “100 Best of the Best Young Adult Books for the 21st Century” by the Young Adult Library Association. It was also selected an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Notable Children’s Book, and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. A former librarian and bookseller, Edith Pattou lives in Columbus, Ohio. You can visit her at www.edithpattou.com.

Editorial Reviews

08/11/2014
Pattou (East) establishes a precarious narrative structure for this story of a prank gone tragically wrong, told in eight different voices (nine counting the police chief) and through free verse. The results are mixed: some characters are vividly drawn, including Maxie, who used to live in town and has moved back in time for senior year; Anil, the smart boy who's astonished to find himself dating beautiful Chloe; and Chloe herself. But that leaves more than half the characters—Emma and Felix, once Maxie's best friends; Emma's boyfriend and sister; and the lonely boy who lives near the graveyard—feeling more like outlines. Pattou's verse is frequently lovely, providing arresting imagery, yet the format can seem arbitrary, often scanning more like sentences with line breaks than words that have found their necessary form. The chief strength in this tale of the bad luck and bad choices that lead to violence isn't the climactic central event; it's watching these disparate teens, particularly Anil and Maxie, relate to one another. The overburdened storytelling provides only glimpses of these powerful moments. Ages 13–up. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Eight teens’ fates intertwine and recombine in the aftermath of a prank gone very wrong…[Ghosting is] a novel in verse…engaging.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Pattou’s deliberate attentiveness to character maturation, along with familial ties that bind and strain, strengthen this skillful portrayal of teen wrongheadedness at a most vulnerable moment.” —Booklist

“This swift, free-verse page-turner…[is] recommended for reluctant readers given the book’s realistic portrayal of a Midwestern town, the lyrical narrative, and the readily relatable protagonists.” —School Library Journal

“Pattou develops distinctive poetic styles for each character in this verse novel…each character manages a full recovery through difficult circumstances, the ending note is upbeat as kindness ultimately wins out.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

From the Publisher

2014-06-25
Eight teens' fates intertwine and recombine in the aftermath of a prank gone very wrong.The constellation of characters is best imagined as a nucleus of two—the beautiful, domineering and troubled athletic couple Brendan and Emma—surrounded by an outer ring of friends, then two farther-off characters. The outer ring comprises sad stoner Felix and camera-toting Maxie, back in Illinois after four years in Colorado, along with golden girl Chloe and her earnest boyfriend, Anil. It is then connected more loosely to Emma's thoughtful younger sister, Faith, and Walter, whose isolation and tenuous grasp on reality plays a pivotal role. After an unsatisfying, awkward stop at an alcohol-soaked end-of-summer bash, Chloe suggests a visit to the local "ghost house," a seemingly abandoned property on the edge of the local cemetery. Chloe and Emma creep up on the porch, knocking over rose bushes as they go. The girls' act of trespassing combines with Brendan's drunkenness and bravado to set off a chain reaction that leads to multiple shootings and other serious injuries, which in turn lead to varying degrees of recovery and, ultimately, reflection. A novel in verse with a large cast of rather two-dimensional characters facing the consequences of their actions is nothing new, but Pattou keeps the pacing brisk enough to make this a decent page-turner.Engaging, if not essential. (Verse/fiction. 13-15)

Kirkus Reviews