In this absorbing novel, sixteen-year-old Cass McKenna sees ghosts, and for the most part prefers their company to living people, or “breathers,” as she scathingly calls them. Beginning after the death of her older sister four years earlier, this odd gift and her reaction to it, as well as a falling-out with her best friend just prior to that, results in Cass being shunned and avoided by the students at her private prep school, though no one knows the specific nature of her ability. Over those years, Cass uses the extra ears and eyes provided by the ghosts she befriends to spy on those students she now despises so she can use that information to embarrass them and force them to face up to their actions.

Satisfied with her unusual life that consists of visits with her dead sister at home and other ghost friends at school, Cass finds herself taken completely off guard when a fellow student, Tim Reed, asks her to help him contact his mother who died of cancer a few months earlier. Stunned that he knows her secret, yet also sort of enjoying having someone she can talk to, Cass agrees to help Tim.

Crewe uses the metaphor of ghosts to explore the pain of loss, as well as the inherent sense of isolation many adolescents feel. Not a particularly likeable character for the first half of the book, in spite of the reader’s sympathy for her situation at home and school, Cass matures and begins to question her motivations. Both Cass and Tim have parents whose response to deaths have been to isolate themselves and forget that they have others still alive who need them. In a suspenseful, gripping novel that is not really about ghosts as much as it is about how we live our lives, Cass strives to not become a ghost of herself. This reviewer highly recommends this poignant examination of Cass’ journey.

Book Stats:

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805089306
• ISBN-13: 978-0805089301

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(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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