Spookygirl Review

Title: Spookygirl: Paranormal Investigator
Author: Jill Baguchinski
Genre: YA Paranormal Fiction

Why I Read It: Je ne sais pas. I kind of just read it because I felt like I should? (Why? I don't know- I have some very weird impulses.)

A Quick Intro: Violet sees ghosts. Like her dead mother, she can see and speak to the spirits of the dead. And now, at her new school, the girl's locker room is giving of some serious, dark paranormal energy. Now Violet has to learn about her powers and conduct a paranormal investigation with a couple of unexpected allies and possibly re-starting her mother's paranormal investigation agency. Oh, and what was that about a haunted house.

What I Thought: This one wasn't my cup of tea. Maybe it was the genre, which I haven't found a lot of books enjoyable from before. I wasn't really fond of the main character, or any of the supporting ones for that matter, and I felt like  things got wrapped up to easily. Also, I have issues with ghosts. (So, self, why did you read it? Well, self1, I don't know.). I think my main problem was that things ended a little too cleanly- that ghosts were the solution to everything so to speak without giving to much away. I would probably gear this more toward a younger audience, actually, maybe 13-14 years old or so.

Fun Fact (I really have to think on this one, hauntings are really not my area of knowledge- wait. I can just talk about funerary practices. That's death-related enough, right?): Wearing black to symbolize mourning is more of an American or European ritual, the Chinese wear white when mourning the dead.  (Not exactly a fun fact, but I'm a little stuck.) Oh- here's one about spirits: the ancient Egyptians believed that the soul was in five parts- the Ib (heart), Sheut (shadow), Ren (name), Ba (soul), Ka (for lack of a better word- essence) (and yes I had to look the specifics up). This contributed to making their afterlife planning complicated.