Haunt Me
- tarascates
- May 9, 2017
- 2 min read
Haunting and intensely romantic, Liz Kessler’s latest novel features a teen girl for whom falling in love could mean losing her heart — and maybe her life. When her family moves after a rough year, Erin feels instantly at home in her new bedroom — even after she realizes that she’s not the only one occupying it. As Erin becomes accustomed to Joe, the spirit of the teenage boy who lived in the room before her, she starts to sense an inexplicable connection between them. Meanwhile, Joe’s brother, Olly, is trying to find a new normal since his brother passed away. Before Joe died, Olly was king of the school — and it’s not until Olly meets a new girl that he realizes just how many ways he’s changed . . . including the type of girl he could fall for. And when Erin finds herself caught between two brothers, and two choices, will her decision destroy her completely, or can she save herself before she’s lost forever? From Liz Kessler, the best-selling author of Read Me Like a Book, comes a young adult novel about how love can overcome the ultimate divide.
I’ve read books by Liz Kessler before and have enjoyed her writing but I’m still not sure where I stand with this one. I think my expectations were set really high based on her previous work so I came in with a certain idea of what I’d find but this was missing something. Her premise is interesting but maybe it’s because she dipped into themes that are appearing everywhere lately and which I’ve read in abundance: bullying, drugs, mental health, suicide, grief etc. She’s a great writer so her descriptions and word choices painted detailed images that allowed you to get to know the characters, settings and where she was taking her story.
She set up her characters well so they felt realistic and their motivations rang true but the story was very slow paced in the beginning which took something away from being able to enjoy it fully. Eventually I got over the hump and the story took off as I was able to get to the Kessler writing I was familiar with.
It’s not a bad book it’s just that it started off kind of boring with no real distinction in narration so it felt a bit monotonous. If you hold on and keep reading it really starts to hit you so you feel for her characters.
Thank you to Netgalley and Candlewick Press for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from netgalley.com