{"id":6627,"date":"2021-09-04T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T16:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/?p=6627"},"modified":"2021-08-29T20:55:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T03:55:15","slug":"this-is-not-a-ghost-story-teen-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/2021\/this-is-not-a-ghost-story-teen-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"This is Not a Ghost Story — Teen Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review by Emily Battaglia , 17<\/p>\n

This is Not a Ghost Story <\/em>By Andrea Portes<\/h3>\n
Mere months before Daffodil Turner begins her new life in college, she finds herself with a rather unusual summer job: house sitting a dusty old mansion for a strange old couple. As the days drag and strange events begin to unfold, Daffodil must figure out what exactly is going on in this bizarre house while concurrently coming to terms with her past.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This is Not a Ghost Story<\/em> begins with a delightful hook: a chilling newspaper clip from the 1800s depicting an unforeseen house fire under strange circumstances. The book takes a rather steep nosedive from there. Despite the oversaturated romanticism of the past, lackluster setting, and capricious pacing of the novel, the true horror lies solely in the main character. Daffodil is so incredibly forced and artificial that her narration quickly becomes impossible to read without cringing. Portes was trying way too hard to create the quirkiest girl ever. She constantly rips down the fourth wall in a clumsy, exaggerated manner before weaving in and out of an unwelcome second-person reference to the bewildered reader. The attempt at \u201cteenage relatability\u201d with Daffodil\u2019s incessant monologue in the form of her inner stream of consciousness is disastrous and painful. A few sporadic instances of the book were as ominous and thrilling as a horror novel should be, however they were greatly eclipsed by Daffodil\u2019s obnoxious narration, and her tendency to tell than show these occurences. The rushed ending was similar to Daffodil\u2019s character in that it was visibly contrived, awkward, not to mention an immense disappointment. Oh, and the reader never does find out what was going on in the house!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2 stars.<\/div>\n
\n

Find this book in our catalog: N\/A<\/p>\n

Catalog Number: N\/A<\/p>\n

288 pages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review by Emily Battaglia , 17 This is Not a Ghost Story By Andrea Portes Mere months before Daffodil Turner begins her new life in college, she finds herself with a rather unusual summer job: house sitting a dusty old mansion for a strange old couple. As the days drag […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":6628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-teen-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/sites\/18\/2021\/08\/811kgo0AjhL.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ZwbD-1IT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4605,"url":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/2018\/eight-days-on-planet-earth-teen-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":6627,"position":0},"title":"Eight Days on Planet Earth — Teen Review","author":"Teen Blogger","date":"March 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"review by\u00a0Jacob Chon, age 15 Eight Days on Planet Earth\u00a0by\u00a0Cat Jordan Summary:\u00a0How long does it take to travel 13 light-years to Earth? 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