Sigh. This was one of those books that just kicks you in the ******* teeth because you really want to like it, but it's impossible too.

This is one of those books where the premise is intriguing, it has potential, but it just flops so hard that it makes me cringe. This book is about a girl, who I can't even remember the name of any more. Okay, I just looked it up and her name is Ellie.

(actually, her name is Elatsoe and I just ******* realized that from reading the summary. I thought her name was like Eleanor or something)

The setting of this book was what really roped me in when I first read the summary. It takes place in America just like the modern-day U.S, but magic is a well-known thing. In fact, the main character can raise ghosts from the dead.

And she has a ghost dog.

A F U C K I N G G H O S T D O G

Can you see why I was so disappointed when I hated this?

The story starts with the main character getting an eerie feeling. So she races to the movie theater to make sure her parents are all right. They're alright, but her cousin's dead. And it was a car accident, or so they thought.

Ellie's cousin comes to her in a dream and is like 'yeah, no, this dude named Abe killed me.'

That's literally all I can tell you because everything else was a blur.

My first problem with this book was the writing. The dialogue was jarring. Almost cartoonish. I feel like if I turned on an episode of Spongebob right now, I would hear something Ellie would say come out of Spongebob's mouth. The writing itself was bland it felt like I was reading the script for a movie more than an actual book.

Secondly, this book feels like middle grade, even though it's considered YA. Now, a book being middle-grade does not make it bad. Just because something is intended for a younger audience doesn't automatically mean that older people won't like it. A prime example of this is the Percy Jackson series. I think everybody loves that and I have never seen a person dislike it. But this is like... middle-grade but the author thought the targeted audience was really stupid.

The characters in this book were just... not real. There is no way in hell Ellie is 17, and every time it was stated that she was 17, it felt like I was getting backhanded out of an already shallow experience. It was like the author wrote the entire series and either realized this book would gain more attraction if it was YA and changed her age from 10 to 17 at the last minute, or just realized that this character in no way acted like a teenager and sprinkled at least one reference to her age per chapter.

Ellie's dad really ****** me off, too. Her father knows that Abe killed their cousin, but still lets his daughter waltz up to him and start a casual conversation with him. But accidentally falling into a river is crossing the line.

All the characters resemble cardboard cutouts. Seriously, you know those big ass, creepy cardboard cutouts you can get of celebrities? That's how I imagined every single character. And everytime they talked, an animated mouth popped up.

The portrayal of grief in this just... wasn't real? Ellie spends no time mourning over her cousin. Neither does really anybody else but the wife of said dead cousin. (I wasn't joking when I said I can't remember names).

Now, you're probably like: Al, how about the ending?

And now, I'm going to tell you, I have no ******* clue because I DNF'd it at like 160 pages. Which is saying something because I always try to get at least two hundred pages into a book before I throw it in the trash bin (or in this case, return it to the library)

Overall, I would not recommend unless you want to be incredibly ****** off.

Elatsoe - Likewise Book Reviews

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