Shelly and her grandmother catch ghosts. In their hair.

Just like all the women in their family, they can see souls who haven’t transitioned yet; it’s their job to help the ghosts along their journey.

When Shelly’s mom dies suddenly, Shelly’s relationship to ghosts—and death—changes. Instead of helping spirits move on, Shelly starts hoarding them.

But no matter how many ghost cats, dogs, or people she hides in her room, Shelly can’t ignore the one ghost that’s missing. Why hasn’t her mom’s ghost come home yet?- Goodreads

This book is heavy but the good kind of heavy. Although the summary states that Shelly is going to lose her mother, I wasn’t expecting it to happen. The author did a fantastic job of making you feel invested in Shelly’s world that you feel the pain as Shelly feels it. And again although the summary kind of tells you what happens next, you are not exactly expecting it. I felt so bad. Everything in me felt so bad for Shelly and how now her whole world is these ghosts and wondering where is her mother.

Shelly doesn’t have much of a personality but that doesn’t mean she is growing. Because that is what we are reading; a turning point in her life that helps her grow. The best word to describe Shelly is inquisitive. She wants to learn and another important thing to note is she lives for ghosts, her grandmother and her mother. She wants nothing more than to be a ghost hunter to help ghost go on and to make her grandmother proud.

When her mother dies, everything changes. What I loved about this book was how it was written. It was so easy to get into this read, to get into this world, to see it and feel it. The words just flows so smoothly and it isn’t only easy to read for children but as an adult reading about a child and how they handle and overcome grief this was great.

The pace of the novel was fantastic and I loved the fact that the story is only told in Shelly’s point of view and there isn’t a best friend influencing her emotions but instead its her learning about herself. I believe adding other voices to this story would have made this book lost its luster and Shelly’s voice would have been lost.

The ghosts, because I am sure you are wondering, are and aren’t the focal point of the story. They are important and push a lot of the story. However, they are the foundation that help lift the story but they aren’t the main point.

Overall,

A great read about grief that I would recommend for a child that understands what is going on and for an adult, any adult.

4 Pickles