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A review by ruthsic
Supervision by Alison Stine
3.0
Something is wrong with Esmé.
Kicked out of school in New York, she's sent to live with her grandmother in a small Appalachian town. But something is wrong with the grandmother Ez hasn't seen for years; she leaves at midnight, carrying a big black bag. Something is wrong with her grandmother's house, a decrepit mansion full of stray cats, stairs that lead to nowhere, beds that unmake themselves. Something is wrong in the town where a kid disappears every year, where a whistle sounds at night but no train arrives.
And something is wrong with the friendly neighbor Ez's age with black curls and blue eyes: He's dead.
Conceptually, Supervision had a lot going for it. Ghosts living in limbo, cursed to relive their death simply because it draws them in, and a girl with a gift in her bloodline that causes her to be attuned to them. When Esme was shipped off to her grandmother’s house in the middle of nowhere, little did she know that her gift would awaken in the strangest way possible – she gets stuck in limbo, meaning she can see and hear ghosts and interact with them but the living can’t do so with her. For all purposes, she is like a ghost with the only distinction being she is actually living. So, stuck in a town she didn’t want to be, she tries to get through to her grandmother while also befriending the ghosts around the house. She, initially, comes off as a bratty teenager, someone who despises the world she lives in, but by the end, she evolves into a strong character when she takes down the villain.
While I loved the concept and the main character, the book was quite difficult to follow through. Things made no sense at the moment of reading, and the writing and pacing was a tad bit slow for me. At times, there was just a lull in the progression of the plotline, and I was a bit bored. The story picked up towards the end, with the exposition, and action, but by then I was already a bit frustrated with it. So, while I mostly got through the book and eventually it did seem good, I did not enjoy reading it.
Received an ARC from HarperCollins via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Kicked out of school in New York, she's sent to live with her grandmother in a small Appalachian town. But something is wrong with the grandmother Ez hasn't seen for years; she leaves at midnight, carrying a big black bag. Something is wrong with her grandmother's house, a decrepit mansion full of stray cats, stairs that lead to nowhere, beds that unmake themselves. Something is wrong in the town where a kid disappears every year, where a whistle sounds at night but no train arrives.
And something is wrong with the friendly neighbor Ez's age with black curls and blue eyes: He's dead.
Conceptually, Supervision had a lot going for it. Ghosts living in limbo, cursed to relive their death simply because it draws them in, and a girl with a gift in her bloodline that causes her to be attuned to them. When Esme was shipped off to her grandmother’s house in the middle of nowhere, little did she know that her gift would awaken in the strangest way possible – she gets stuck in limbo, meaning she can see and hear ghosts and interact with them but the living can’t do so with her. For all purposes, she is like a ghost with the only distinction being she is actually living. So, stuck in a town she didn’t want to be, she tries to get through to her grandmother while also befriending the ghosts around the house. She, initially, comes off as a bratty teenager, someone who despises the world she lives in, but by the end, she evolves into a strong character when she takes down the villain.
While I loved the concept and the main character, the book was quite difficult to follow through. Things made no sense at the moment of reading, and the writing and pacing was a tad bit slow for me. At times, there was just a lull in the progression of the plotline, and I was a bit bored. The story picked up towards the end, with the exposition, and action, but by then I was already a bit frustrated with it. So, while I mostly got through the book and eventually it did seem good, I did not enjoy reading it.
Received an ARC from HarperCollins via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.