The Ghost and the Goth

The Ghost and the Goth by Stacy Kade, 2010.

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 (DON’T call her a ghost) 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 who despises the social elite. 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?

When I first saw The Ghost and the Goth at the bookstore, I admit that I was a bit iffy on getting it, but the prologue was just flat funny (even though that’s when Alona died) and drew me straight into the book.

At first I didn’t much care for Alona, too dramatic, but she gave the book a lighter air and she kept making me laugh (I’m not sure if that’s how the author meant her to be…).

Will was interesting, definitely the misunderstood type.

I think The Ghost and the Goth was just what I needed to read after reading a few too many serious and slightly darker books. It had just the right amount of action sprinkled throughout to keep me interested, plus I really enjoyed how polar opposite Will and Alona were from each other.

The story was interesting, but it reminded me at times of Meg Cabot’s Mediator series, (hmm, could this be why I liked it so much) while it had some similarities it was also quite different in its own way.

My favorite thing about The Ghost and the Goth would have to be that it was a light and humorous read, yet it had some darker elements (but not in an over use of swearing and no inappropriate content that I can think of).

Least favorite part of the book: was how after she died she realized (the hard way) that she actually had no friends. I found it to be well…kind of sad and done before, but it wasn’t an overplayed aspect of the book.

Final Verdict on The Ghost and the Goth: A good solid read, but a bit (just a wee bit) predictable at points. Language wise it was very clean, with only minor swearing that I can recall.   

The Ghost and the Goth earns 4 out of 5 pineapples.