Rating: 
Summary: It'll haunt you
Review: It's hard to believe an 80-page comic book can get so deep under your skin. But it's been a week since I finished this book, and I still find myself thinking about Enid and Becky as if they were real people I knew. Their lives are full of all the loneliness, longing and perversity that makes them so frustratingly human. Daniel Clowes does an excellent job of creating richly complex characters, whose "adventures" are also extremely entertaining to read. A big part of the appeal of this book, especially if you're a guy, is to be able to get into the head of a teenage girl, and be able to experience for once first-hand all of her thorny, bitter-sweet, and contradictory thoughts and feelings. You'll see that their minds can be just as jumbled as ours.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and moving...
Review: Just saw the movie and thought it was an utterly faithful translation of Clowes's vision to the big screen. A charming and funny book which I can't recommend strongly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Ghost World by Daniel Clowes!
Review: Okay. The real reason I read "Ghost World" was because I LOVED the movie. So I couldn't wait to read the comic book (because I'm also a huge fan of comic books). Then when I found out that Daniel Clowes, the guy who wrote the movie along Zwigoff, had also wrote the comic book, I flipped out! And then, I couldn't believe how flabergasted I was after reading the graphic novel. I only have one more thing to say. WOW!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect, just perfect
Review: On the surface of the narrative are two teenage girls, just falling off the edge of high school into the rest of their lives. Beneath the surface, I have no idea what this book is about, if indeed it is about anything at all. It's just perfect. Just achingly, beautifully perfect. The movie was good, too, in it's own way. The same themes and characters are explored in different ways, in a different medium. But even if you saw the movie, there's plenty to enjoy in the book.
Rating:
Summary: funny, sad, insightful
Review: Read this now before the film comes out, so you're able to have the original feel for what this story is about. Daniel Clowes is fantastic at capturing the subtle and not so subtle aspects of girls and friendship. The comic is spooky, hilarious, dry and just right-on in so many ways. Buy it! You won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Enid and Rebecca's Ghost World is fun reading!
Review: Seeing what was one of 2001's refreshing alternatives to the cinema, i.e. Terry Zwigoff's adaptation of Daniel Clowes' Ghost World, was what prompted me to get the graphic novel that inspired the movie, and I was NOT disappointed, believe you me. Most of the scenarios seen in the movie are in the book. The garage sale, the lame comedian, the "Satanists," the 50's diner with "Weird Al," the prank call leading to the fake date, the note on Josh's door, etc. Two of them involve different characters. Enid's visit to the adult shop has Josh as her unwilling escort, while the recipient of the fake date was an unnamed character. Seymour was the subsitute in the movie for both occasions. The interactions between Enid and Rebecca are realistic and human, as the bored duo spend days looking for excitement. Towards the end, their friendship gets frayed, as both have different visions of where they want to be, and the differences between them become pronounced and explored. Rebecca wants to belong somewhere, but Enid isn't sure. The humor here is more human and natural while being profane at times. Certain characters add to the laughs, such as the obnoxious John Ellis, a right-leaning WASP who endorses controversial views and people, such as a ex-priest into child porn. He might as well be a refined Eminem. He constantly taunts Enid whenever they meet. In one conversation, we learn poor Enid's last name--Coleslaw. Enid: "My Dad has his name changed legally!" To which Ellis replies, "From what... three-bean salad?" Now that's funny! Another bit: Enid: "Look how hot we are... How come no boys ask us out on dates?" In the next frame, she says "Maybe we should be lesbos!" to which Rebecca says "Get away from me!" Josh may be awkward and shy, but he is, as Enid tells him, "the last decent person on Earth." Both want to go out with him, but he is put off by Enid's sarcasm and he isn't sure about Rebecca. When pressed on his political views, he says he endorses "policies opposed to stupidity and violence,... cruelty in any form, censorship..." That makes two of us. I've wondered this since I saw the movie, but does the bus stop where Norman finally gets his bus and where Enid goes, symbolizes hope? There's no interaction with Norman in the book, but it's revealed that the bus line has been reopened, while there's no such information provided in the movie. The novel doesn't change the symbolism of the bus stop. Compare the book to the movie, which is different in some ways, but still explores the themes of alienation and growing up; see how perfect Thora Birch and Scarlet Johansson were in playing Enid and Rebecca. Both are stunning. Truly a rare gem of a comic.
Rating: 
Summary: One last summer...
Review: So, you're a despondent teenage girl, fresh out of high school, and you and your best friend in the world have little to do beyond hang out at coffee shops and mock your fellow humans while hovering on the fringe of acceptable society. Our heroine Enid Coleslaw and her best friend Rachel Doppelmeyer are not glamour girls, are not part of the popular crowd, but seem quite happy with their roles of caustic observers. Ghost World covers that simultaneously fragile and empowering period of life immediately following graduation from high school, before having to head off to college or a job or whatever the future may bring. While it would be easy to dislike Enid and Rachel for their sarcasm, their overactive imaginations, their snide cruelty, Clowes does an excellent job of bringing out the insecurities and the fears behind the girls' bravado. In some unquantifiable way, Clowes's artwork matches the story and the characters perfectly. A little off, a little oddly out of proportion at times, sometimes beautiful, sometimes awkward. All in all, a great mix, and certainly worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: After all the hype -disappointing
Review: The artwork is quite clever and reflects the storyline. However, it is a storyline that failed to engage me. Enid and Becky are the only 3 dimensional characters in this book. They are surrounded by one or non-dimensional characters who are poorly developed, if at all. Enid and Becky are as unsympathetic as anti-heroes can be. And as such they fail to evoke an empathic response in the reader. At least this reader developed an antipathic response instead. They are dour, pessimisic and feel superior. Yet, their comments are neither clever nor entertaining. Basically, I didn't [care] what happened to them. Because no one else was developed, that left no one to peek my interest.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This is the first graphic novel that actually made me feel sympathy for some of the characters - made me care about them and their experiences. There's a point in the story that the girls go to a strangeish retro diner that has a hippie for an employee. One of them seems to realize something about this happy-happy seeming middle-aged man and spends some time leaving a large tip. It then flashes to a couple panels that depicts this man - no longer smiling and all - cleaning up and collecting the tip then depositing coins into a machine. I must've read those 1 or 2 pages a dozen times. I can't quite put it into meaning the reason I stuck to those pages but it really meant something to me. I guess the author just fleshes out the characters to such an extent that you just have to care about them. There are many other notable scenes too. Ghost World is simply a brilliant book about people and their "real" lives as opposed to the ones other people think they lead. Don't listen to the haters because this graphic novel changed my opinion about comics once and for all after reading an umpteenth amount of pulpy Batman ishes. They really can have heart and meaning about them and that's the important thing. Get it.
Rating:
Summary: Now I'll have to see the movie . . .
Review: This slice of late teenagehood is not your typical graphic novel. Enid is a profane and not terribly attractive girl filled with self-loathing, subject to mood swings, fits of punk-ism, and a two-minute attention span, who is obsessed with her non-boyfriend, Joshua, and her own unappeased sexuality. Rebecca, her lifelong best friend, is much prettier, less volatile, and pretty much lets Enid run her life. They observe and discuss the people they know, reflect on their childhood memories, and avoid discussing what their lives might be like without each other. It's almost like a reality show -- but much better.
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