Spectral Story

Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison

* ARC received from the publisher for review

2 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

Oh Notes from Ghost Town, I thought we would be good friends but no you really weren’t what I was expecting.  I mean everything started out great with your prologue, that’s what drew me to you.  After that initial meeting though things became confusing/weird.  

At first I thought your main character was in college and just back home for the summer but then I was really thrown for a loop when I found out that she was only sixteen.  I thought from the first chapter you were going to be one of those New Adult type books and I was cool with that.  I think you misrepresented yourself just a bit and maybe could have been stronger if the main character and her friends were in college instead of high school.  

I would have liked to know more about pretty much all of the relationships portrayed.  Olivia is an interesting character, she just feels rather disconnected from the other characters especially her best friend and the guy she might just like/love.  I believe she’s supposed to be seen as an unreliable narrator but from the prologue and first chapter I had the feeling that all of these events had already happened (so you get the feeling the whole time that everything turned out all right in the end.)

You had some great paranormal stuff going on, I just wish there had been more and maybe have a certain ghost be explained more.  I mean your tagline is “First loves never die.”  When you have a great line like that I really want to see more love happening before characters are inevitably pulled apart.

Your mystery was a tad too easy to solve and (I’m someone who’s usually terrible at solving mysteries and figuring out who the bad guy is.)  This murder mystery didn’t seem to have enough urgency, maybe the story would have been more exciting if it had been told right after the murder happens.

I spent much more time with you then I originally thought I would because I kept trying to find ways to avoid you.  I finally finished with you and just felt kind of meh.  You certainly have a lot of build up but they you just fizzle out at the end.