Rating: 5 out of 5
Genre: Middle Grade, Scifi / Fantasy, Contemporary, 5 Stars
People who should read this: Middle Grade readers, people who love ghost stories but don’t like anything too scary, history, Scotland, amazing writing.
“The living may take strength from love and hope, but the dead grow strong on darker things. On pain and anger and regret.”
Don’t hit that back bottom.
Please hear me out.
I know I said this is a Middle Grade book (MG) but it’s by the Queen of cat ears herself, V. E. Schwab.
All those thoughts you’re having, I had them myself. Why would someone, a full grown adult, want to waste her time on a MG book? They’re so vanilla. So boring. Actually, that’s just society putting its nasty little talons in your head. MG is only made boring by the author. What makes MG MG are the topics and themes covered in the story. You probably won’t be reading about abortion, sex, first loves. Instead, the opposite sex tends to stay as friends and the blood and gore doesn’t go past a simple bump on the head, just like a good old cartoon - Sylvester always let Tweety go. Still, that doesn’t mean the story is bad, especially when Schwab is at the wheel.
Queue City of Ghosts.
“Embrace your strange, dear daughter. Where’s the fun in being normal?”
How long do I have to wait for the next one?
Placed right in Schwab’s new hometown, Edinburgh, City of Ghosts follows Cass, a girl with a new ability to see the dead. What she doesn’t know is what she’s supposed to do with her new gift. Then there’s Jacob, Cass’s new ghost sidekick, who plays the bumbling, yet still cool, best friend. Schwab weaves her masterful craft of character building with the rest of the cast. Sometimes Cass feels a little cookie cutter with her list of interests, but each character is unique. You want to know Cass more. You want to see what makes Jacob tick. Even the parents are cool, mimicking my love for Meg’s mom in A Wrinkle in Time.
“She bounces off with all the enthusiasm of someone rushing toward cake, not corpses.”
Cass never comes across as annoying. Most authors struggle to pull that off with older characters, and yet Schwab did it with a twelve-year-old. Writers, take note. Cass is strong, doesn’t do things outside of a twelve-year-old’s means, and even matures along the way. Her parents are perfectly involved. There’s none of that trying to figure out how she could just disappear in a strange city and her family wouldn’t care. And Schwab even took an overused idea of ghost hunting and found a way to make it interesting, matching it to Cass’s interests.
What can Schwab not do?
“Nothing happens until it happens, and then it’s already happening.”
Plus, I was never too scared. Guys, I scare so easily. The Witch of Willow Hall gave me the creeps. So, this book was the perfect amount of scary to leave me spooked without having nightmares. I’m still scarred from The Haunting of Hill House. My husband and I have a code word. (Insert laughing face)
My friends, give City of Ghosts a try. It’s a wild adventure with a fun little twist in the end. Well researched, you feel like you’re in the very city itself. This isn’t your average MG book. It’s perfect for the young and the young at heart.
Happy Reading
Love Kait
Reading Challenge: 45/100