Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Girl and the Ghost

I am unsure how to rate or review this book. There are many things I liked but ultimately there are more thing I didn't like.

Th set up was solid. A girl who's a bit "strange", lives with a borderline neglectful mother and struggles to build friendship, and a ghost who loves the girl dearly but does not know the best way to protect her and relies on dark methods a bit too much... I feel like there are lots of potentials for character development here. There's a lot of nuance too with the girl and her mother's relationship and also the way the girl reacts to/interacts with the school bullies. But none of these are explored in a satisfying way.

What bothered me the most was how the bullying was handled. I checked out when the girl would rather take essentially inhumane treatment than doing ANYTHING for herself. Not letting Ghost retaliate is one thing, but considering any sorts of fighting back as bad as the bullies themselves is quite another.

The girl's character development is incredibly weak and nonexistent. The conflict with the antagonist also feels fake and unconvincing. For the rest of the book I was simply not engaged.

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qrschulte's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ugh what a beautiful and emotional book. Had me crying by the end. My suspicions were correct, and the reveal at the end was hard, but perfect. It was definitely horror, but not too much for me to handle. It was scary while still being manageable.

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lizgom's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This will probably be my favorite middle grade book. I listened to this as an audiobook, and honestly it was great. I feel like it gave the characters more depth than I would've given them if I had read it. I have a habit of liking middle grade books better as audiobooks. This is a great take on mental health and reaching out.

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