I really wanted to love this book. Unfortunately the main character was tough to relate to and the dialogue was unrealistic.
Emily, who lost her parents 10 years ago has made her life about moving forward and doing the things they would have wanted her to do - all while not talking about or dealing with her feelings about losing them. Obviously losing your parents as a teenager is truly tragic and likely one of the most difficult things to accept and move past. Emily's refusal to even consider dealing with her loss, after 10 years, is one thing, but the fact that nearly every single thought she has is about them, and every single thing she sees or hears brings up memories she doesn't want to deal with honestly gets a little old. If EVERYthing still makes you cringe or hide after 10 years, it seems unlikely that you'd actually be as successful as Emily appears to be. It just seems unbelievable and also a bit tiresome to read and know that no matter what happens in a given scene, it's going to make her freak out about losing her parents. I know that may sound cold and heartless, but...it's been ten years...
The other piece that I found very difficult to read was the dialogue, as it just wasn't believable. People speak in contractions...except in this book. For example, a natural way to greet someone would be to say, "It's nice to meet you," but in this book, the characters said, "It is nice to meet you." I think that in every instance where "it's" could have been used, "it is" was used instead. It made the dialogue very stilted and awkward, so it did not flow at all.
I did like the relationships between the ghosts, and I thought the end tied things together quite nicely.
I feel that there are some good elements to this story, but these two things made this book difficult to get into.
Emily, who lost her parents 10 years ago has made her life about moving forward and doing the things they would have wanted her to do - all while not talking about or dealing with her feelings about losing them. Obviously losing your parents as a teenager is truly tragic and likely one of the most difficult things to accept and move past. Emily's refusal to even consider dealing with her loss, after 10 years, is one thing, but the fact that nearly every single thought she has is about them, and every single thing she sees or hears brings up memories she doesn't want to deal with honestly gets a little old. If EVERYthing still makes you cringe or hide after 10 years, it seems unlikely that you'd actually be as successful as Emily appears to be. It just seems unbelievable and also a bit tiresome to read and know that no matter what happens in a given scene, it's going to make her freak out about losing her parents. I know that may sound cold and heartless, but...it's been ten years...
The other piece that I found very difficult to read was the dialogue, as it just wasn't believable. People speak in contractions...except in this book. For example, a natural way to greet someone would be to say, "It's nice to meet you," but in this book, the characters said, "It is nice to meet you." I think that in every instance where "it's" could have been used, "it is" was used instead. It made the dialogue very stilted and awkward, so it did not flow at all.
I did like the relationships between the ghosts, and I thought the end tied things together quite nicely.
I feel that there are some good elements to this story, but these two things made this book difficult to get into.