The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen-- Reviewed by Hailey Hinrichs

                19 year-old Wes Auckerman has just moved to New York City to attend a filmmaker summer program at NYU. While helping a friend film a séance in the Bowery, Wes and his friend, Tyler, see a beautiful girl with a satin bow in the way of the camera frame. As the night progresses, Wes can’t seem to find her again. Due to his curiosity to find out more about her and Tyler’s need to find this mysterious girl to sign a release paper, Wes goes to find her. Once he finds her and they start spending more time together, Wes tries to uncover parts of Annie’s past. Also, how is she connected to Maddie, the other mysterious girl Wes met at the séance? As Wes and Annie travel around NYC trying to find her missing ring, Wes learns more about her past and why she seems otherworldly.

                I really enjoyed this book so I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I love Katherine Howe’s writing style and I thought this book was very good. I really liked the characters and how bizarre some of them were. I also liked the dual POV’s and that some parts were from Wes’ POV and other were from Annie’s. Sometimes it doesn’t work very well and it gets confusing when authors do that but I think it went along smoothly in this book. If you have ever read Katherine Howe’s other book Conversion I think you would like this book as well. It has that thriller/mystery twist to it that really keeps you wanting to read more. I really enjoyed this book all together.

The Lying Game #1 by Sara Shepard

Who killed Sutton Mercer?, December 6, 2010

This is a fun new YA series by the author of the Pretty Little Liars books that have now been reincarnated as an ABC Family Original TV Series.

Emma Paxton sees a snuff video of what she thinks might be her long lost identical twin on YouTube. She escapes her most recent foster home and heads to Arizona and inserts herself into Sutton's home and life to try to figure out what happened to this sister whom she never got to meet.

Red herrings abound as Emma tries to find out what led to Sutton's demise and who killed her. The problem is that Sutton and her friends had invented a dangerous pranking activity they named "The Lying Game" and there are quite a few who might be mad enough to have committed murder as an act of revenge or anger because of one of those devious games.

Emma interacts with Sutton's best girlfriends, her handsome boyfriend, and her sister, Laurel. In an unusual twist, however, the ghost of Sutton is able to observe all of Emma's activities and also read her thoughts as Emma snoops and blunders around trying to figure out exactly what might have happened. Sutton cannot interfere or interact with the living and functions as a first person observer, interjecting her voice here and there in somewhat random fashion, but she is not able to direct the investigation and in fact, isn't quite sure of what happened herself!

Needless to say, because it's the first in a new series, the ending is a cliffhanger. Too bad, but the reader will have to wait until July 26, 2011 for The Lying Game #2: Never Have I Ever to find out more.

Enjoy! This book is a fun mix of mean girls, murder, and mystery. 

Ms C.

ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley

Campy and fun, September 11, 2010

Warning -- this is not a serious, depressing book about death or the afterlife -- it's a fun, campy romp about a girl who dies (by choking to death on a gummy bear in an empty classroom)and whose passing is barely noticed because she was such a nonentity at her high school.

Charlotte spent the entire summer before senior year making herself over with the sole intent of gaining the attention of one of the most popular boys at school, Damen Dylan. Her "Popular Plan" included changing the way she looked and acted to become not only noticed, but envied, and thus part of the "in" crowd at Hawthorne High. Part of her goal included being asked to the Fall Ball and receiving the legendary Midnight Kiss from that boy of her dreams. Unfortunately, everything goes awry on the first day of school and Charlotte finds herself in Dead Ed trying to figure out how she's going to get her true love from beyond the grave. She decides to possess a living girl, Scarlet - a goth teen who is the complete opposite of the cheerleader crowd and the younger sister of Petula, one of the most envied in the school -- and Petula is the girl who just happens to have the boyfriend that Charlotte craves. Havoc and confusion ensue as Charlotte and Scarlet both fall head over heels for Damen (sensitive, dumb jock?) and both arrive at a realization about themselves that neither anticipates.

Parts of the book are laugh out loud funny as the satirical and pop references combine to create the puns that drive the story. Colorful "dead" characters (nicknamed for the method or cause of death) and stereotypical live high school kids mix it up in some amusing ways, but after all the effort at being clever, sometimes the joke falls flat and it all gets a little tedious at the end.

This story wraps up nicely -- but there's a hint that the saga will continue and it does in ghostgirl: Homecoming and a third book just released, ghostgirl: Lovesick. I might skim those two to see what happens in the further adventures of the dead Charlotte Usher.

The cutout black, pink and silver cover is enticing and unusual making this one book that teens will pick up and check out! Enjoy a few laughs.

Ms C.