Sunday, September 16, 2012

The Ghost and the Goth Trilogy: Don't Judge a Book by its Cover


I meant to solely (Oh, isn't that punny?) review Body & Soul, the last and final book in the series but my love for this series forces me to share the book love.

The Ghost and the Goth. By Stacey Kade. Hardcover, 281 pages. June 2010, Hyperion Books 
First we have The Ghost and the Goth, or in this instance, a case of "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover." Because you have to admit, the cover looks like a repeat of "Sweet Valley High." But the story sounded interesting (a newly dead cheerleader "Alona' who befriends a ghost-talking social outcast 'Will') even if it did seem cliche.

The Gist: After the first few pages, I almost put the book down. There were the typical stereotypes and I thought, "Oh, Great. What have I gotten myself into." But not to fear! The story evolves quite nicely and changes into a deeper story about unlikely friendships. It's a bit predictable but the dialogue and humor of the dual POVs kept me thoroughly entertained. Read the full review here.

Queen of the Dead. By Stacey Kade. Hardcover, Hyperion, May 2011. 

Next we have Queen of the Dead: Part 2 of the trilogy. Again...I somewhat cringe at this cover: did we have to make will's hair so...flat and goth nerdy? In this one, Alona and Will's friendship grows as they try to work and use Will's power for good. But Will meets another ghost talker and things get a little more complicated.

The Gist: Kade has a good thing going with this series. I wasn't planning on liking it as much as I do. The dialogue of the two characters flow very well with humor and sarcasm. I've laughed and laughed and laughed. And I love the "He said, She said" element of the story. The plot begins to get a little more twisty and ends on a very complicated note. Read my full review here.

Body and Soul. By Stacey Kade. Hardcover, 316 pages. Hyperion , May 2012. 

Which brings us to the last installment of the series: Body & Soul. I guess third time's the charm because they finally did something right with the cover! In this one, Alona is stuck in the body of Will's friend Lily. As they try to make sense of this situation, things get complicated when another ghost wants a turn in Alona/Lily/Ally's body.

My Review: This series has definitely found its place on my "books I need to own" shelf. As soon as I read the first page, I was hooked. Kade has this way of writing that is not only catchy and witty but natural-as if each character him/herself is telling me his/her side of the story. And how does she come up with all those lines?!

I really grew to love Will and Alona. They have both matured and become more selfless and caring. You can really feel their longing for this relationship to work out. And when this other ghost complicates things, I couldn't help but hope for that happy ending.

In the end, I was very happy. I was actually surprised by how well everything in the story seemed to work out. I still shed a tear or two when I said good-bye to Alona and Will. I had some pretty good times with those two. I can't wait for Kade's next series: The Rules. Also seen on Goodreads. (Content Advisory: some language.)

3 comments:

Perla said...

Having followed your blog for a little bit, I feel I can say that I trust you and your sisters taste in books. I read so much YA, that I have fallen into a little bit of a book cover prejudice. Often times the cover really does reveal what is on the inside. In those instances reading YA makes me feel like I'm an old lady and I ask myself why I'm wasting my time with high school shenanigans. Then I'll read YA set in high school that changes my mind. Like Shelly Coriell's Welcome Caller, This is Chole- totally out of my usual taste, but I really enjoyed. After reading your review I feel like I should give this series a chance. Thanks!

Pricky Angel said...

Awww Perla! You're so sweet. There are so many books out there that are really good (but have horrible covers...like Rallison's Take the Ex out of Ex-boyfriend) and others that have awesome covers (but horrible stories!). From what I'm told, the author has little or no say about book covers: once Bree Despain talked about how she went into a panic with how the cover of Dark Divine was going to look and had to force the publisher to change it!

Oh! And I actually have a copy of "Welcome Caller..." on my shelf! Good to hear that you enjoyed it! so I'm excited to read it!

Thanks so much for following our blog! You made my day! :)

Perla said...

No problem, I always look forward to see if our tastes match. One of my all time fave YA series started with a terrible cover- and I think continued with that trend through out; The Demon's Lexicon series. Wish they had no people on the cover at all. Hated all of them, but the books were amazeballs.