Review: ghostgirl: Homecoming by Tonya Hurley

Hey there! I've got another interesting read for you all. I just finished reading the ghostgirl books by Tonya Hurley. Talk about an interesting take on the afterlife...wow. The most recent book is ghostgirl: Homecoming.

Title: ghostgirl: Homecoming

by Tonya Hurley

Hachette Book Group

ISBN: 9780316113595

http://www.ghostgirl.com/

http://www.tonyahurley.com/

from the publisher's website:

Heaven couldn't be a phone bank, could it?

Charlotte Usher discovers that the afterlife isn't quite what she pictured when she's forced to intern at a hotline for troubled teens. Before she can officially cross over, she'll have to be a source of guidance for one such teen. The problem is she doesn't have much advice to offer since dying hasn't exactly boosted her confidence level.

But when Hawthorne High's leading, love-to-hate cheerleader Petula and her gothic little sis' Scarlet find themselves suddenly resting-in-peace in comas, Charlotte's opportunity to save them will prove to be the risk of a lifetime-for all of them.

my thoughts:

ghostgirl: Homecoming is a perfect continuation of ghostgirl. Charlotte Usher has now crossed over, but so far the afterlife isn't all it's cracked up to be. All of her friends from Dead Ed are so wrapped up in their afterlife reunions and answering their phones at the call center that they never seem to have time for her anymore. Except for the new girl Maddy; Maddy is the only one who seems to be there for Charlotte. That is until Charlotte's friend Scarlet appears in the land of the dead begging for Charlotte's help in saving Scarlet's oh-so-popular sister Petula.

I really like Tonya Hurley's take on the whole afterlife idea. It's unique, and very much a life goes on kind of thing. You might be dead, but there's still work to be done. And while Charlotte (aka ghostgirl) is pretty cool, I've gotta say my favorite character is Scarlet. I like her uniqueness, and that she's willing to be herself no matter what. (Unlike Charlotte, who died trying to be one of the popular girls.) I also like that even though Scarlet and Petula never got along and were about as different as two people from the same gene pool could be, when it came down to it Scarlet was willing to go the extremes to save her sister.

I've also gotta say that ghostgirl and ghostgirl: Homecoming both have excellent endings. The end of ghostgirl: Homecoming even managed to bring a little tear to my eye (not that that's hard to do :) ).

If you like an originial story then I highly recommend checking out Tonya Hurley's ghostgirl books. Oh and stop by ghostgirl.com too. There's a lot of great info on the series there, plus a cool shop where you can get ghostgirl merchandise. There's an awesome ghostgirl shirt that I've got my eye on. :)

And because I'm in a fun mood here's a question for everyone. In the ghostgirl series the students of Dead Ed have nicknames based on their cause of death, like Picolo Pam who choked on her Picolo, or Call Me Sue who took cell phone usage to the extreme, there's even a girl who couldn't stop blogging (better be careful!). What cause of death and resulting nickname would you choose? (if it's too morbid to assign one for yourself you're welcome to create a fictional character)

I'm having trouble thinking of one for myself. If I come up with one later I'll post it in the comments. I need more thought for this one. :)