Notes From
Ghost Town by Kate Ellison
Release Date:
February 12th, 2013
Number of Pages:
336
Publisher:
Egmont USA
Source: ARC from
MM Publicity
They say first love never dies... From critically acclaimed author Kate Ellison comes a heartbreaking mystery of mental illness, unspoken love, and murder. When sixteen-year-old artist Olivia Tithe is visited by the ghost of her first love, Lucas Stern, it’s only through scattered images and notes left behind that she can unravel the mystery of his death.
There’s a catch: Olivia has gone colorblind, and there’s a good chance she’s losing her mind completely—just like her mother did. How else to explain seeing (and falling in love all over again with) someone who isn’t really there? With the murder trial looming just nine days away, Olivia must follow her heart to the truth, no matter how painful. It’s the only way she can save herself.
If there’s one
thing I can say about Notes from Ghost Town, it
is that it is full of emotions. There is something beautiful and addicting in
this book. From the summary, I didn’t it would be the kind of book that would
keep me hooked enough to read it in one sitting, but I just couldn’t put it
down once I started. Writing a novel revolving around someone’s murder and the
emotions that comes with losing a loved one, and having her mother accused of
the murder isn’t a easy thing, but Kate Ellison managed it. She created a
beautiful and heartbreaking novel, balancing the mystery and the pain of the
loss.
Olivia sure
doesn’t have it easy in this book. She’s an artist who just lost the ability to
see colors, and she ends up dropping out of art school. She just lost her best
friend, Stern, who she also loved. And on top of that, Olivia’s mother is the
one accused of his murder. Yes, Olivia doesn’t have it easy. Kate Ellison gives
us the roller coaster of emotions that comes with all that drama, without ever
making it feel over the top. We get a main character broken, but still strong.
She’s the average girl trying to survive her grief, trying to make sense of
something that never really makes sense.
Stern’s
appearance as a ghost only she can see brings another wave of dilemmas and
questions Olivia has to face. All of this made me fall in love with her as a
character, simply because you can’t help but feel something for all she has
been through, and all she has to go through. Stern is the kind of character you
can’t help but like. He appears like such a great guy, and he is after all the
best friend, before being the guy Olivia falls for. The mix of Olivia’s
memories and Stern’s ghost creates this character that you wish you could have
had a chance to know more about, to see more.
Other than this
entire emotional overload she has to live, Olivia also ends up having to solve
the mystery of Stern’s death. With Stern ghost proclaiming her mother’s
innocence, she now needs to find who really killed him. She needs to prove her
mother’s innocence before she is convicted of his murder.
I was a little
scare, seeing as the book isn’t that big, that those two elements would feel
like too much in the novel. Yet, Kate Ellison created a well-balanced story
that will captivate your mind and heart. I fell in love with her writing, and I
enjoyed every pages of this book.
About
the Author:
From
NetGalley
Kate
Ellison is the critically acclaimed author of The Butterfly Clues. She
spent a lot of time as a child, in Baltimore, pretending to be things she
wasn't: a twin, a telekinetic, a benevolent witch with a box full of magical
stones, a spy, a soccer player. She trained as an actor in Chicago and has
walked across the entire country of Spain. She is a painter and jewelry-maker,
and has at least one artist friend who really does keep his true name a secret
from the world. He told her, but don't ask her to tell you—she's not gonna do
it. Kate lives in Brooklyn, New York.
