A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
“Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you’re dead.”
Helen has been dead for 130 years but her essence is still on this earth attaching itself to a “host” so as to not fall into nothingness. But she isn’t the evil specters one would associate with hauntings, no Helen is part of the “Light,” those who are still on earth but which the living can’t see and for some reason can’t move on. During her years as Light she’s had several hosts and now she’s attached herself to Mr. Brown, a high school English teacher.
It is while Mr. Brown is teaching class that Helen feels someone looking at her but how is it possible for that young student to notice her? No one has ever noticed her. What Helen will come to find out is that Billy is not really the one who sees her but James, yes, another one who is also part of the “Light.”
James entered Billy’s body after Billy suffered a nearly-fatal overdose. When he sees Helen there is an immediate connection and even though she’s scared and doesn’t understand at first, the two struggle to find a way to be together.
It is then that James hits on the idea that Helen should also enter someone else’s body. Helen will find that it’s not easy to inhabit someone else’s body. She’ll struggle to learn who Jenny really is and why she wanted to leave the world of living in the first place.
I found this YA novel so engaging not just because of the romance between James and Helen, but also for its portrayal of the two teens who were hurting emotionally and actually preferred not to be here. In addition to the ghost aspect of the story, there is also an air of mystery as James and Helen tell us more about who they were and why they haven’t moved on. An intriguing premise with some interesting approaches to the ghost story.
How about you? Read a good ghost story lately? Oh, and this is one down for my R.I.P. Challenge!
Dark Sister by Joyce Graham. It was so good, I ended up reading only Joyce Graham books for weeks after.
Oooh, I like stories like this! And I love RIP! So far I have read Meggie’s Remains, Shadow of the Wind and Rebecca. I don’t think I’m going to have any problems hitting four books, in fact will probably read more than that. I am in the middle of The Seance by John Harwood, and fully intend to read Her Fearful Symmetry after that, then The Uninvited for my book club. I am out of control.
I just loved this book. It was one of my favourite reads last year. I thought the whole concept was quite unique.
Wow! This is a terrific plot.. please oh please i want this one 🙂 🙂
And in other news i just found out that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is made into a movie!! did u know? it is not in English **sigh**
even if you didn’t ask, here is the link 😀 –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6j_3-2fTxQ&feature=player_embedded#t=53
I have had this book on my TBR list for a while. It certainly sounds good every time I hear about it!
This sounds very much like my kind of ghost story, and it’s one I’ve been meaning to read for a while. I’m glad you enjoyed it so much!
I listened to this one on CD back in 2006 or 2007. I liked the premise quite a bit, although parts of the book had me eye rolling a little, I enjoyed it!
I’ve never heard of this book but it looks really good. I just went ahead and added it to my book pool on Bookswim.
OdettO – Hadn’t heard of that author so I’m going to be looking out for her books! Thanks for the tip.
Sandy – Ha,ha.. you are out of control! In a good way of course 🙂 I hope you are enjoying all of your RIP reads. I want to read The Seance and Her Fearful Symmetry.Oh no, more for my list!
vivienne – I agree! I just liked how she described what ghosts could and couldn’t do. I thought that was really neat too.
Veens – I had heard it was made into a movie but hadn’t seen a trailer or anything. Oh man, thank you so much for the link! I’ll be checking it out and of course I’ll be upset that I don’t know Swedish 🙂
Marg – It’s a good, entertaining read so hope you’ll get to it one of these days. I know how it is with all the piles!
Nymeth – I think you may really enjoy the teens characterization. I thought that was very well done and I really felt for the “hosts”.
Eva – Yes, it did have it’s moments. I wasn’t too crazy about the fanatical family stuff because I thought she went a bit too much into that but I guess I’ll give her a pass being that it was a first novel 🙂
Stephanie – Yay, glad you got it on your list. And, Bookswim, oh I hadn’t thought of them in a while. Must go check it out!
Great review Iliana. I am going to look into that one for sure. Nice twist on romance.
This one sounds like it would capture my attention and is different than most of what I read. This is one for the TBR pile. I’m realizing that I have missed a lot of great reads by not considering YA literature. After reading Speak I am really noticing YA stuff now!
this does sound like a good ghost story! I like that there is a romance in the plot. 🙂
I’ve never heard of this book but this sounds great – thanks for the review!
Wow! Very interesting premise – I’ll be looking into this one, thanks for the review!
roxane – Thank you! I liked that too. I am not a “romance” reader but I certainly enjoy a good love story when there’s something else going on.
Kathleen – I’m with you – I used to not pay attention to YA and now I’m trying to catch up on what I’ve missed! Thanks to book blogging I discovered that genre!
bookworm – It is! I hope you’ll give it a try!
S. Krishna – I know I heard about it from a blog friend although I can’t remember who now but I’m glad I remembered it!
Tara – The details of what a ghost could and couldn’t do were also really neat.
u r very welcome 😀
A Certain Slant of Light sounds like a story I could really get into. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! Excellent
Sounds right up my alley! I’ll have to look out for this book. Thanks for the great review, Iliana! 🙂
Oh, this does sound good. I’m going to have to try to pull it off my shelves sooner rather than later.