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zapkode's review
5.0
{my thoughts} - I had a real difficult time getting interested in this book. I kept telling myself that it had to get better eventually. Once I had read through the first few chapters the book had picked up tremendously. This book is about a teenage girl named Olivia and her quest to clear her mother’s name for the murder of her best friend Lucas.
Olivia is lost and doesn’t know how to respond to things. She makes some poor errors of judgment, gets drunk and nearly drowns. If it weren’t for Lucas she would have died that night in the water, but he had pulled her to safety. That is when she realized she was either imagining him or he was a ghost.
The poor girl was terrified she was turning into her mother with the same mental issues. She was so afraid that she was going crazy as her mother had. In the end though through a lot of headache, disappointments, and questioning she figures out what had happened the night Lucas had died.
This book is well worth the read. It’s an emotional roller coaster in some places and brilliantly written. I learned one thing that is important, that you can’t judge a book based in the first couple of chapters, because once I was through reading I wanted to know more about everything that had happened. I was completely drawn into the words that had been written on the pages.
{reason for reading} – I was given a copy of this book by a fellow reviewer in return for an honest review.
Olivia is lost and doesn’t know how to respond to things. She makes some poor errors of judgment, gets drunk and nearly drowns. If it weren’t for Lucas she would have died that night in the water, but he had pulled her to safety. That is when she realized she was either imagining him or he was a ghost.
The poor girl was terrified she was turning into her mother with the same mental issues. She was so afraid that she was going crazy as her mother had. In the end though through a lot of headache, disappointments, and questioning she figures out what had happened the night Lucas had died.
This book is well worth the read. It’s an emotional roller coaster in some places and brilliantly written. I learned one thing that is important, that you can’t judge a book based in the first couple of chapters, because once I was through reading I wanted to know more about everything that had happened. I was completely drawn into the words that had been written on the pages.
{reason for reading} – I was given a copy of this book by a fellow reviewer in return for an honest review.
justlily's review
DNF at Chapter 5.
The premise here is so interesting and the end of the first chapter literally had my jaw dropping. In fact, even know that I've quit it, I want so badly to know how it turns out.
Unfortunately, the author writes so awkwardly. And I don't mean awkward characters. I mean awkward word placement, awkward sentence structure, repeating adjectives, confusing turns of phrase that don't add anything to the story whatsoever.
This could have been so good. It just...needed to be written by someone else.
The premise here is so interesting and the end of the first chapter literally had my jaw dropping. In fact, even know that I've quit it, I want so badly to know how it turns out.
Unfortunately, the author writes so awkwardly. And I don't mean awkward characters. I mean awkward word placement, awkward sentence structure, repeating adjectives, confusing turns of phrase that don't add anything to the story whatsoever.
This could have been so good. It just...needed to be written by someone else.
audreychamaine's review
3.0
I’ve now read two mysteries by Kate Ellison in which mental illness plays a major role. The first, The Butterfly Clues, features a protagonist who has severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as kleptomania. In Notes from Ghost Town, the protagonist’s mother is the one with mental illness: she is schizophrenic. When Olivia loses the ability to see color, turning the world around her into various gradations of gray, she fears that she has inherited her mother’s mental illness. Not only that, but the best friend she loved who was murdered by her mother has come back as a ghost.
While I liked Notes from Ghost Town well enough, it never got under my skin. I thought about it, and found that it was the same problem I had with The Butterfly Clues. There just isn’t enough emotional connection. Even in scenes that should be extremely emotionally motivated, it reads as a bit sterile to me. The story was fine, the mystery even had me wondering for most of the book. I just didn’t feel the highs and lows that I expect when I read teen fiction.
While I liked Notes from Ghost Town well enough, it never got under my skin. I thought about it, and found that it was the same problem I had with The Butterfly Clues. There just isn’t enough emotional connection. Even in scenes that should be extremely emotionally motivated, it reads as a bit sterile to me. The story was fine, the mystery even had me wondering for most of the book. I just didn’t feel the highs and lows that I expect when I read teen fiction.
adelavmb's review
5.0
Read the full review on my blog, in both English and Romanian.
http://vanillamoonblog.com/2013/02/09/rewiew-notesfromghosttown/
I have been reading a lot lately, and this made me become stricter and more selective with my books. But every once in a while, I come across a book that enages and inspires me so much that it becomes one of my favourites of all time. This was the case with “Notes From Ghost Town” by Kate Ellison. For some reason, I find it harder to express my feelings about books that I absolutely loved. There are so many thoughts I have about this book, I hope I am coherent in these following lines.
The book deals with a series of very delicate issues: mental illnesses, death, divorce, losing all that is dear to you. The protagonist herself feels like she’s losing it, especially because her mother’s mental illness is hereditary. The fact that she suddenly sees everything in black, white and shades of grey (literally) doesn’t help either. Or the fact that Stern appears in her life as a ghost, insisting that her mother wasn’t the one who killed him. You can see how complicated the whole situation is, and how Olivia copes with all this is trully remarkable. She keeps telling herself that she might be crazy like her mother, but exactly the fact that she is having these thoughts shows that she is actually not. I love characters who are in a constant fight with their thoughts and emotions!
The action is slow-paced at the beggining, with a focus on the main character’s feelings and thoughts, and I must say I love this kind of books. It reminded me of the British classics written by female authors I love so much (like the Bronte sisters) with all those inspirational phrases. I don’t usually highlight very much on my Kindle, but for this book I have 8 Kindle pages of highlights, and not just simple senteces, but whole paragraphs or pages from the book.
I have been so immersed in the book from the very first page that I found myself thinking about it during the time I was not reading it. “Oh Susannah” was playing in my head and I actually sang it out loud while I was dressing or brushing my hair, like Olivia heard it in her mind right before Stern’s ghost appeared. I find it so sad, losing your best friend before having the chance to tell him you actually loved him. That’s probably the most clear lesson this book teaches you: don’t leave any unspoken feelings and thoughts.
“Notes from Ghost Town” managed to fully engage me in its story. The whole tension and mystery in the book envelopped me and I couldn’t help but read page after page. Time stopped and I felt like I was living everything that Olivia did. Her smile was mine, her sorrow was mine, her tears were mine… literally. I can’t remember when a book last made me feel like this.
The author did great not only in creating this unique story, but also in portraying the characters and making even the idea of Stern’s ghost seem realistic. I particullarly liked the idea of the Gray Space, the place that Olivia’s schizophrenic mother describes as a place of anti-art, antifeeling.
I recommend this book to readers in search of something new. It’s not a typical thriller, not a typical romance and certainly not a typical paranormal book. It’s a very unique combination of the three and if you are a fan of one of these genres, and also like books that focus on feelings, you are sure to love this book too.
http://vanillamoonblog.com/2013/02/09/rewiew-notesfromghosttown/
I have been reading a lot lately, and this made me become stricter and more selective with my books. But every once in a while, I come across a book that enages and inspires me so much that it becomes one of my favourites of all time. This was the case with “Notes From Ghost Town” by Kate Ellison. For some reason, I find it harder to express my feelings about books that I absolutely loved. There are so many thoughts I have about this book, I hope I am coherent in these following lines.
The book deals with a series of very delicate issues: mental illnesses, death, divorce, losing all that is dear to you. The protagonist herself feels like she’s losing it, especially because her mother’s mental illness is hereditary. The fact that she suddenly sees everything in black, white and shades of grey (literally) doesn’t help either. Or the fact that Stern appears in her life as a ghost, insisting that her mother wasn’t the one who killed him. You can see how complicated the whole situation is, and how Olivia copes with all this is trully remarkable. She keeps telling herself that she might be crazy like her mother, but exactly the fact that she is having these thoughts shows that she is actually not. I love characters who are in a constant fight with their thoughts and emotions!
The action is slow-paced at the beggining, with a focus on the main character’s feelings and thoughts, and I must say I love this kind of books. It reminded me of the British classics written by female authors I love so much (like the Bronte sisters) with all those inspirational phrases. I don’t usually highlight very much on my Kindle, but for this book I have 8 Kindle pages of highlights, and not just simple senteces, but whole paragraphs or pages from the book.
I have been so immersed in the book from the very first page that I found myself thinking about it during the time I was not reading it. “Oh Susannah” was playing in my head and I actually sang it out loud while I was dressing or brushing my hair, like Olivia heard it in her mind right before Stern’s ghost appeared. I find it so sad, losing your best friend before having the chance to tell him you actually loved him. That’s probably the most clear lesson this book teaches you: don’t leave any unspoken feelings and thoughts.
“Notes from Ghost Town” managed to fully engage me in its story. The whole tension and mystery in the book envelopped me and I couldn’t help but read page after page. Time stopped and I felt like I was living everything that Olivia did. Her smile was mine, her sorrow was mine, her tears were mine… literally. I can’t remember when a book last made me feel like this.
The author did great not only in creating this unique story, but also in portraying the characters and making even the idea of Stern’s ghost seem realistic. I particullarly liked the idea of the Gray Space, the place that Olivia’s schizophrenic mother describes as a place of anti-art, antifeeling.
I recommend this book to readers in search of something new. It’s not a typical thriller, not a typical romance and certainly not a typical paranormal book. It’s a very unique combination of the three and if you are a fan of one of these genres, and also like books that focus on feelings, you are sure to love this book too.
amibunk's review
3.0
Gritty and a little raw, Notes from Ghost Town delves deep into a teenager's perspective of mental illness. While the supernatural aspect of the story has a prominent position in the story, it was how Olivia deals with her mother's bipolar disorder and the possibility that she may have inherited that disorder that really interested me.
joyousreads132's review
2.0
I struggled with this book; it turns out, I don't have the capacity to be patient when the book I'm reading contains a much more evolved mystery. And boy, did this book ever tried my patience.
Quick Story:
Notes from Ghost Town is a story about a girl whose realization that she was in love with her best friend came a little too late. Because a week after they kissed, he was murdered. As if that's not enough to push her into a tailspin of emotional and mental chaos, the accused murderer (and admitted guilty party) was her mother.
Olivia Tithe is a talented painter; but when a sudden onslaught of colour blindness took away her ability to paint, she lost interest in everything else: food tasted bland and everything turned grey. A week or so before her mother's sentencing, she starts seeing the ghost of Lucas Stern, her best friend. Proof that she's well on her way to insanity. She's always known it's in her blood; after all, her mother is suffering from Schizophrenia herself, and why she admitted to being guilty of killing Stern. But Olivia knows her mother is innocent. She could never kill a boy whom she'd loved as though he were her own son. She has nine days to prove her innocence, but with everyone dissuading her from delving further, it will be difficult to find a someone who would sympathize. Time is running out for her mother, and for Lucas, who is slowly sinking into a realm where the restless dead exist without peace.
My Thoughts:
I didn't think it would be possible to grow bored with a mystery novel. It's supposed to keep you flipping the pages until you unravel all its intricacies. At first, I was genuinely vested in the story. But as time goes by, my interest started waning.
I know a good mystery novel does not reveal its secrets until you get closer to the bitter end. Notes from Ghost Town certainly accomplished that. But for an impatient reader like me, it became a painful practice in the art of waiting - waiting for the story to unravel; waiting for the characters to reveal their true selves.
Herein lies the frustration I have with this novel; which, to be honest is probably the same reason it works for fans of this genre. It was stingy with clues; it gave no hints, and gave away no suspects. Oh don't get me wrong, the author threw me a bone; but if clues were bones, she gave me a stirrup (smallest bone in the human body). As such, it wasn't substantial enough for me to bite. It took away the enjoyment of solving the mystery in the midst of reading, and as a result, I grew bored.
Olivia, while she was a fantastic actualization of a girl on the cusp of possibly losing her mind, was a little hard to reach. She didn't appeal to my sense of empathy, to be honest. She was a mixture of a lot of things but nothing definite.
The grey space that Olivia found herself was something I didn't enjoy reading. I don't know how a kiss could bring on such a dramatic change to her world. Was the kiss that good that it spurred on such a drastic/traumatic reaction? Not to mention it's the equivalent to an injury suffered by a blunt force trauma to the head? Perhaps it's to add on to the sense that she's completely losing her mind? However, it felt unnecessary to me. As if seeing Stern's ghost is not enough to warrant a trip to her therapist's couch.
The novel itself seems a little disorganized, and lacking - from its characters to the small arches that encompasses the entirety of the story as a whole - I felt dissatisfied over all.
If you're a true lover of mystery novels in a Young Adult milieu, this book is probably more your forte. I'm not saying I don't enjoy a mystery novel from time to time, but it has to sustain my interest throughout.
Quick Story:
Notes from Ghost Town is a story about a girl whose realization that she was in love with her best friend came a little too late. Because a week after they kissed, he was murdered. As if that's not enough to push her into a tailspin of emotional and mental chaos, the accused murderer (and admitted guilty party) was her mother.
Olivia Tithe is a talented painter; but when a sudden onslaught of colour blindness took away her ability to paint, she lost interest in everything else: food tasted bland and everything turned grey. A week or so before her mother's sentencing, she starts seeing the ghost of Lucas Stern, her best friend. Proof that she's well on her way to insanity. She's always known it's in her blood; after all, her mother is suffering from Schizophrenia herself, and why she admitted to being guilty of killing Stern. But Olivia knows her mother is innocent. She could never kill a boy whom she'd loved as though he were her own son. She has nine days to prove her innocence, but with everyone dissuading her from delving further, it will be difficult to find a someone who would sympathize. Time is running out for her mother, and for Lucas, who is slowly sinking into a realm where the restless dead exist without peace.
My Thoughts:
I didn't think it would be possible to grow bored with a mystery novel. It's supposed to keep you flipping the pages until you unravel all its intricacies. At first, I was genuinely vested in the story. But as time goes by, my interest started waning.
I know a good mystery novel does not reveal its secrets until you get closer to the bitter end. Notes from Ghost Town certainly accomplished that. But for an impatient reader like me, it became a painful practice in the art of waiting - waiting for the story to unravel; waiting for the characters to reveal their true selves.
Herein lies the frustration I have with this novel; which, to be honest is probably the same reason it works for fans of this genre. It was stingy with clues; it gave no hints, and gave away no suspects. Oh don't get me wrong, the author threw me a bone; but if clues were bones, she gave me a stirrup (smallest bone in the human body). As such, it wasn't substantial enough for me to bite. It took away the enjoyment of solving the mystery in the midst of reading, and as a result, I grew bored.
Olivia, while she was a fantastic actualization of a girl on the cusp of possibly losing her mind, was a little hard to reach. She didn't appeal to my sense of empathy, to be honest. She was a mixture of a lot of things but nothing definite.
The grey space that Olivia found herself was something I didn't enjoy reading. I don't know how a kiss could bring on such a dramatic change to her world. Was the kiss that good that it spurred on such a drastic/traumatic reaction? Not to mention it's the equivalent to an injury suffered by a blunt force trauma to the head? Perhaps it's to add on to the sense that she's completely losing her mind? However, it felt unnecessary to me. As if seeing Stern's ghost is not enough to warrant a trip to her therapist's couch.
The novel itself seems a little disorganized, and lacking - from its characters to the small arches that encompasses the entirety of the story as a whole - I felt dissatisfied over all.
If you're a true lover of mystery novels in a Young Adult milieu, this book is probably more your forte. I'm not saying I don't enjoy a mystery novel from time to time, but it has to sustain my interest throughout.
heather4994's review
4.0
This was a beautiful, heartbreaking story about Olivia and Stern, two gifted teens. Olivia or Liver as Stern called her was a painter and Stern, Lucas Sternum, was a pianist, a prodigy. Olivia's mother was Stern's teacher, that is right up until the night she confessed to murdering him. And the last time Olivia saw Stern he kissed her, called it a mistake and she lost her colors. She could only see black and white and shades of gray. How does a painter paint without color? She doesn't and gets kicked out of art school and sent back home.
The story was only the tiniest bit sluggish in the beginning and a little bit confusing as Olivia is at a party at Ghost Town, her father's building project, attending a reception. She hates the prep school boys there, her father's business partner's son most especially Asher Oakley, but I didn't really understand why. After that, I was so engrossed in the story, and you'll see why, that I couldn't put it down.
Olivia is angry at the world, her mother for killing her best friend and the boy she loved and never got to tell. She hates her father's soon to be wife, Heather. She hates that her other best friend Raina has new friends on the swim team. She just hates it all. But she won't admit any of it to anyone. And she's really afraid that she's going crazy, like her mother because her mom has schizophrenia. She's a likable character even if you can't relate to what she's going through. And I admired her determination.
The story is almost like a love story to Stern and to Olivia's mom. Olivia searches for the real truth of that night and even though everyone thinks she's just not dealing with the impending sentencing, she knows she's not crazy. What happens are a series of events that are too related to call coincidence, too scary to call pranks and too brazen to call an accident. Getting someone to believe her is the hardest thing Olivia has to do.
Kate Elliston is a great story teller with just the right mix of suspense and longing to keep you going. Her mix of bittersweet with reality was perfect. The thriller aspect of it took my mind off the undertone of sadness and gave my mind something else to focus on. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to reading more from her. I think I'll pick up The Butterfly Clues and give it a try.
Forgot to tell you, I was given a copy of Note From Ghost Town free of charge for review. All opinions expressed are my own. I was not compensated for my review financially in any way.
The story was only the tiniest bit sluggish in the beginning and a little bit confusing as Olivia is at a party at Ghost Town, her father's building project, attending a reception. She hates the prep school boys there, her father's business partner's son most especially Asher Oakley, but I didn't really understand why. After that, I was so engrossed in the story, and you'll see why, that I couldn't put it down.
Olivia is angry at the world, her mother for killing her best friend and the boy she loved and never got to tell. She hates her father's soon to be wife, Heather. She hates that her other best friend Raina has new friends on the swim team. She just hates it all. But she won't admit any of it to anyone. And she's really afraid that she's going crazy, like her mother because her mom has schizophrenia. She's a likable character even if you can't relate to what she's going through. And I admired her determination.
The story is almost like a love story to Stern and to Olivia's mom. Olivia searches for the real truth of that night and even though everyone thinks she's just not dealing with the impending sentencing, she knows she's not crazy. What happens are a series of events that are too related to call coincidence, too scary to call pranks and too brazen to call an accident. Getting someone to believe her is the hardest thing Olivia has to do.
Kate Elliston is a great story teller with just the right mix of suspense and longing to keep you going. Her mix of bittersweet with reality was perfect. The thriller aspect of it took my mind off the undertone of sadness and gave my mind something else to focus on. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to reading more from her. I think I'll pick up The Butterfly Clues and give it a try.
Forgot to tell you, I was given a copy of Note From Ghost Town free of charge for review. All opinions expressed are my own. I was not compensated for my review financially in any way.
raeanne's review
3.0
Won a hardcover copy from The Reading Teen with a paperback copy of The Butterfly Clues.
Compared to The Butterfly Clues, there's more mystery, family and teen drama. Liver is less out there than Lo with using alcohol and sex to cope. The perspective is standard aside from being colorblind.
The "color blind but now I see" is too on the nose.
It feels forced, especially having it set in a week before Owen died. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. It just happens like that for tension and drama.
I think I'd like it better if seemed tied to one specific thing, like kissing Owen and getting closure with him or her mother committing murder and getting closure with her. Instead it's both and neither.
Mystery-wise it's more solid and straight forward. It's layered and flowed better than The Butterfly Clues but I still called it before 100 pages. Olivia's risky behavior has more to do with inner turmoil than the mystery.
It builds slowly considering we know going in she's going to investigate Owen's murder and there's obviously something to find. While reading and after finishing, I still had twinges that it was feeling too long. Maybe it could've been tighter but...meh.
It's more suspenseful and tense than The Butterfly Clues though I can't pinpoint why. I think it boils down to better disbursing and management of the clues.
The countdown for Liver's mother's hearing has a lot of wasted time with kid's wasted hookups and family drama. But at least some of it has a point in the plot besides being theatrical.
I do like how figuring out the 5 W's isn't the end. Olivia still has to prove it and that she's not making stuff up.
The personal stories afterwards is wrapped up well. It felt like good closure.
Not bad, not remarkable but solid and enjoyable.
ruffled_pigeon's review
4.0
Olivia Tithe used to be happy. And then her best friend, Lucas Stern, died, killed by her mother. It doesn't make sense to Olivia: Stern the protégé of Miriam Tithe, who confessed to killing Stern, the lawyer that suddenly left after promising news. Then Olivia went colorblind. Her dad is too focused on his new job as a real estate developer and his upcoming wedding with Heather, whom Olivia dislikes. After a short fling with Austin Moore, the son of Ted Oakley, who works with her dad, she realizes who really is the murderer.
This is a slight murder mystery bordered with realistic fiction. I liked the fact that the author portrayed the struggles of teenage friendships, young love, and the seemingly everlasting grief of losing those you love. Olivia truly believes her mother is innocent no matter what others say. It is this belief that spruns her to find the truth.
This is a slight murder mystery bordered with realistic fiction. I liked the fact that the author portrayed the struggles of teenage friendships, young love, and the seemingly everlasting grief of losing those you love. Olivia truly believes her mother is innocent no matter what others say. It is this belief that spruns her to find the truth.