Lily's Ghosts

Rating:
Summary: Gripping and beautifully written.
Review: For what feels like the hundredth time, Lily and her mother Arden have moved. This time, though, they are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Having very little money, they are forced to stay at Uncle Wes's house in the historic city of Cape May.

Lily, full of anger at her lot in life, discovers that something very strange is going on in the old house. Objects seem to move around by themselves, someone puts jam in her shoes, and she receives strange phone calls. Then there are the secrets about her mother's family. How did strange Uncle Max die and why doesn't her mother talk about her family at all?

It isn't long before Lily realizes that, even though Uncle Max may be dead, he isn't gone. There is something that his restless ghost wants from her, and the sooner she finds out what it is, the better.

Laura Ruby pulls you into her extraordinary story from the very first page. There are in fact parallel stories being told: Lily's story and the story of the ghosts who live in Cape May. Both stories are sad at times, with lost souls looking for something that will give their existence (or the end of their existence) some meaning. Ruby keeps the two tales apart until the end of the book when they collide, the ghosts and the living people coming together in a fitting finale.

Gripping and beautifully written with highly visual descriptive passages and a touch of black humor, LILY'S GHOSTS will alternately touch and amuse the reader. It also encourages thought about the afterlife, and there will be times when one might feel compelled to turn on a few more lights or get up to see if the doors are locked.

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Rating:
Summary: What a romp!
Review: This is a delightful book. From Lily - dragged by her mother to live in a great-uncle's house in Cape May, to Vaz - her first friend, to the fraudulent fortune-teller, to the ghosts, the characters in this book will capture your imagination. The ghosts (the couple who just can't seem to grasp the fact that they're dead, the teenager who is convinced that Lily is the girl that did her wrong, and others) almost steal the show but Lily shines through. At first resentful of yet another move, by the end of the book she has made friends, conquered enemies and come to like her new surroundings.

This book is great fun to read. I look forward to Laura Ruby's next book, whether about Lily or a completely new adventure.

Rating:
Summary: a great book for kids
Review: This novel presents a real world and a ghost world side by side, and the young heroine, Lily, tries to keep the two straight. The setting of Cape May, New Jersey, is perfect for the odd goings-on. Young readers will have fun figuring out which strange things are caused by the mischievous ghosts and which by the malevolent people. A great read.