Isabel has no interest in magic, just like she hasn't been too interested in her best friend Tripp's past obsessions. Like in the past, though, Isabel supports her, because that's what friends do, even if they do whine about it a little. Tripp performs a summoning spell and all of a sudden things are going crazy. There's a hot, male ghost who can't go more than five feet away from Isabel, who is also the only one who can see or hear him. Isabel just wants him to go away, he just wants to figure out who he is was, and Tripp just wants to do more magic. This is a recipe for trouble.

Girl vs. Ghost has some weaknesses, the most blatant of which is the cover art and the images between the chapters. While on some level I do think that one shouldn't judge books by their covers too much, I definitely do. Because of the cover art, I would not have picked this book up in the store.

The plot, too, has some disappointing spots, such as the fact that the female characters are both rather bumbling for most of the book, causing pretty much all of the trouble that they get themselves into and needing help from the boys to get themselves out again. Not to mention the fact that both guys are in perfect shape apparently, whereas Tripp nearly died when she ran a block. On the other hand, Isabel and Tripp both have promise; Isabel is delightfully grumpy and sarcastic (traits I very much relate to and appreciate), and Tripp might come into some serious witchy powers.

I occasionally found myself a bit confused by the changes of perspective, as the tale switches between Tripp and Isabel. Probably, were I to write this, I would have switched off at chapters or at least indicated whose section it was. Some other things clearly felt like setup, but did not come up again in this book, making them a bit out of place (see: demons at the school, ghost powers). Also, Finnegan's (Irish ghost) speaking annoyed me; this is a pet peeve, as I just cannot stand when characters are written in accents (a word here and there is fine, but let the reader do most of it in their head, please!).

All of that said, Girl vs. Ghost is definitely better than quite a few of the YA books I've read from well-respected publishers (such as Hereafter or the House of Night books by another mother/daughter writing team). And, should I happen across the sequel at some point, I would certainly be willing to give it a shot to see if it's better; I like the characters enough to be curious about what will become of them. So if you would like a quick, easy read and to give some new authors a chance, pick up the Kindle version for only 99 cents!
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I always really love ghost stories, and this book did not let me down! Girl vs. Ghost is well written, with a fast paced story that starts with a bang! Kate McMurry and Marie August make an awesome writing team! I can't wait to see where the next book is this trilogy takes me! ( )

Well the first thing that I noticed about this book was that it had some good dialogue between the characters. You learn their personality types and who they are through their dialogue between each other. I also started off not really liking any of the characters, but they started to grow on me.

The story does shift point of views from each of the characters as they try to solve the mystery of how the ghost dropped into their lives and who he is. The story does not go into details about the characters lives and no back story, it's a mystery to solve.

It was fun to try to solve the mystery of how the boy died and how he became attached to Isabel. He literally cannot get further than 5 feet away from her at a time. A concept I found very cute and added to the humor of the book. It was a very light and fast paced read.

This story took a plot turn around the middle of the book that I really was not expecting. . It's really nice to be surprised every once in awhile. From the description I knew the story would contain witches and ghosts, but as the story goes on there are more paranormal/supernatural beings included that make the story more interesting.

It was written for people of all ages, so you will find it a quick read. There are comic book-like pictures throughout the book that are like the cover art featured above. ( )

This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/2011/09/girl-vs-ghost-by-kat-mcmurry-and-mari...

Isabel's best friend Tripp is always getting into something new. Her grandmother Alora, has a New Age shop, and right now, Tripp's interest is witchcraft. One night while Tripp is practicing "witchcraft" at Isabel's house, Isabel feels as though someone is watching them. As Tripp finishes her summoning spell, someone falls into Isabel's lap.

The problem? Only Isabel can see this someone, and worse, he doesn't even know that he's a ghost. On top of THAT, he doesn't know who he is, or how he ended up as a ghost at all.

With the help of Alora, an angel named Uriel, and a 16th century Irish stableboy named Finnegan, Isabel and Tripp must find out what happened to the ghost in order to send him on.

This was a rather cute, fun read. If not for a spot or two of cursing, I would even have said it would make a good middle reader. There were some spots of funny, and even a little bit of romance, as well as the mystery behind how the ghost became a ghost in the first place.

QUOTES:

"Quest?" Isabel said after Alora has channeled Uriel. "I'm supposed to go with the ghost, uh, Marc, on a quest? What am I, Sancho Panza to his Don Quixote?"

Adding insult to injury, his sister had walked through him twice while she'd kicked Isabel out the door.
He hated it when the living did that to him.

Writing: 3 out of 5 stars
Plot: 4 out of 5 stars
Characters: 3 out of 5 stars
Reading Immersion: 3out 5 stars

BOOK RATING: 3.25 out of 5 stars ( )

RECEIVED FROM: Won From Goodreads First Reads

***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***

Isabel Lindley is an attention neglected sixteen-year-old whose sole focus is her studies to become a doctor. The main distraction in her life is her zany best friend Tripp who picks up new interests like furniture picks up dust. Every time Tripp develops a new interest it becomes the sole focus of her life and she drags Isabel into it too. Tripp’s current focus is magic, but when she cons Isabel into sitting in on a summoning spell this go drastically wrong and Isabel ends up linked to a ghost who didn’t know he was dead and that only she can see. Since he’s connected to her by an invisible five foot leash she can’t get away from him and his presence doesn’t fit into her well ordered and driven life. Marco Davalos thought he was dreaming, watching the girls chant on the floor, that is until he winds up in the middle of their circle not remembering who he is or how he got there. Now Isabel, Trip and Marco has to work together to figure out the answers to the questions of his past before his past catches up to them.

Okay first I’ll say this was really more of a 3.5 stars, it was a fast and enjoyable read. The main problem was there was no build for the story. What I mean by this is we don’t enter to meet the girls or learn about them before they start a spell. We open to the spell occurring and Marc showing up. Instead of a struggle to learn who he is, Tripp’s grandma announces his name the day after he arrives in a summoning. Everything basically falls into the characters lap and very little time is left to set the scene or add description. I know I’m a stickler for too much description, but for once I’m saying there’s really not enough. And I actually think it’s too fast paced because the authors aren’t allowing the time to character struggle and strife.

They want us to acknowledge the two characters have feelings for each other by the end of the book but they’ve rushed through the story so quickly that you don’t see any reason why. The characters aren’t tied together long enough to be much more than strangers. For the most part the idea of the plot is really interesting, the characters all have some great potential, but the story is just so rushed that nothing rises to meet its full potential in this novel.

Also there were a couple of things I found a little hard to believe. They’re all supposed to be attending the same private school, now I attended public school so I don’t know firsthand, but my thoughts are most high school people are paying tuition for are fairly small because of the tuitions. The likelihood that the two girls at sixteen wouldn’t know the two boys that are seventeen just doesn’t seem likely to me. I know there was something else, but at the moment it escapes my mind so we’ll just go with that and say that a couple other things were hard to believe as well.

Additionally while I know this is a young adult novel, since it’s not a graphic novel and the protagonists are sixteen, illustrations really weren’t needed and are on the distracting side. Rather than a comic scene I’d rather that space had been used to expand upon all the interesting elements being brought into this story instead of rushing like a race to the finish line.

Overall I’d say the book is a decent read and enjoyable for a short distraction, but it frustrates me to see a story with some much potential not be expanded upon to reach that potential. If they’d take more time to flesh this story out, it could have been just so much more. ( )