Ghost of a Chance by R Lassiter - Jan 2011 ER
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1reading_fox
Ghost of a Chance - BAH doesn't touchstone. By Rhiannon Lassiter.
Well my review is HERE
Copied below for your amusement. I enjoyed it, but could be better in places.
Much darker and more grown up than I was expecting! A proper ghost story set in modern times. Very enjoyable, a well managed spookiness, and well written.
Eva Chance is the surviving daughter of an unhappy mum, from a landed family now run out of funds. Brought up by her grandfather (with occasional visits from her aunts) in the country estate. At the occasion of the annual family gathering to discuss the forthcoming tourist season, Eva realises that people aren't just ignoring her, they can't actually see her, or hear her. Always a bit shy and retiring, she has now become a ghost. She quickly realises she is far from the only ghost in the mansion though. An early prank sees Eva sent to the cellars where the real trouble lies - one of the Chance's early ancestors has stored the relics of a witch dunking implements there. The bound remains of a real witch have cursed the house and family for generations. Eva decides maybe she can do something about it - but first she has to explore the supernatural world while maintaining a grip on the 'real' one, to prevent the Witch's plots to cause more misery to the remaining Chances.
The opening sections (and the rest of the book) that focuses on Eva is very well done. I initially expected some rehash of the popular paranormal based books, but this isn't - even though the basic themes could work that way. Instead Eva is very real both as a ghost and as a human. Where I felt the book could do with more work (or editing) is in the other characters. Especially when the text jumps (distractingly) to their POV. Given Eva's sense of surprise at becoming incorporeal, the remaining humans seem to take the appearance of ghosts remarkably calmly. There is nothing in the build-up explaining that ghosts are a normal part of their world, but they hardly seem shocked by it - although a few do disbelieve at first. It is also quite annoying when the POV switches around a lot. Any empathy you've built up for a character is lost, and the new characters don't get sufficiency of writing devoted to them for them to become any more than obvious cutouts. Some of the interaction between brother and sister was well done, but a lot remained somewhat wooden.
As with all such tales the ending is one of the key components to making an enjoyable book. Here too, it was good, but less than perfect. Although the identity of the culprit was well maintained for a while it did become guessable towards the latter third of the book. The "big twist" was very obvious, and I was only curious to see how the author managed it, not whether it was going to happen. The manifold plus sides of the story are the general atmosphere and world set-up. I liked the variety of ghosts and their abilities and powers. I liked Eva's determination and her motivation for it. The general continuity held together well, which can be very tricky to do, and quickly spoils a story when it goes wrong.
Overall - recommended, worth reading to anyone who enjoys ghosts stories
Well my review is HERE
Copied below for your amusement. I enjoyed it, but could be better in places.
Much darker and more grown up than I was expecting! A proper ghost story set in modern times. Very enjoyable, a well managed spookiness, and well written.
Eva Chance is the surviving daughter of an unhappy mum, from a landed family now run out of funds. Brought up by her grandfather (with occasional visits from her aunts) in the country estate. At the occasion of the annual family gathering to discuss the forthcoming tourist season, Eva realises that people aren't just ignoring her, they can't actually see her, or hear her. Always a bit shy and retiring, she has now become a ghost. She quickly realises she is far from the only ghost in the mansion though. An early prank sees Eva sent to the cellars where the real trouble lies - one of the Chance's early ancestors has stored the relics of a witch dunking implements there. The bound remains of a real witch have cursed the house and family for generations. Eva decides maybe she can do something about it - but first she has to explore the supernatural world while maintaining a grip on the 'real' one, to prevent the Witch's plots to cause more misery to the remaining Chances.
The opening sections (and the rest of the book) that focuses on Eva is very well done. I initially expected some rehash of the popular paranormal based books, but this isn't - even though the basic themes could work that way. Instead Eva is very real both as a ghost and as a human. Where I felt the book could do with more work (or editing) is in the other characters. Especially when the text jumps (distractingly) to their POV. Given Eva's sense of surprise at becoming incorporeal, the remaining humans seem to take the appearance of ghosts remarkably calmly. There is nothing in the build-up explaining that ghosts are a normal part of their world, but they hardly seem shocked by it - although a few do disbelieve at first. It is also quite annoying when the POV switches around a lot. Any empathy you've built up for a character is lost, and the new characters don't get sufficiency of writing devoted to them for them to become any more than obvious cutouts. Some of the interaction between brother and sister was well done, but a lot remained somewhat wooden.
As with all such tales the ending is one of the key components to making an enjoyable book. Here too, it was good, but less than perfect. Although the identity of the culprit was well maintained for a while it did become guessable towards the latter third of the book. The "big twist" was very obvious, and I was only curious to see how the author managed it, not whether it was going to happen. The manifold plus sides of the story are the general atmosphere and world set-up. I liked the variety of ghosts and their abilities and powers. I liked Eva's determination and her motivation for it. The general continuity held together well, which can be very tricky to do, and quickly spoils a story when it goes wrong.
Overall - recommended, worth reading to anyone who enjoys ghosts stories
3flissp
I've taken far too long to review this, but finally, here are my comments:
Finally, a review for Ghost of a Chance by Rhiannon Lassiter:
Eva Chance wakes up on the morning of her 16th birthday with nothing to look forward to. To make matters worse, her thoughtless relatives are all descending on the crumbling old mansion that she has lived in with her Grandfather since her birth and the death of her mother. They all know that they could run the dilapidated building better than they can, but are never around for the day to day upkeep when the building is closed to the public.
Something is not right however, her relatives notice her even less than usual and, over the course of the day, Eva realises that she is, in fact a ghost. She's always known that there were nasty dark spots in the building, but now there seems to be something more malignant pervading the whole place. Determining to solve her own murder, she may have something worse to fight against than the machinations of the person who killed her.
My first impressions of this young adult book weren't great - most of the characters seemed a bit cliched and two dimensional and I could see where the plot was going. I'll stick by the 2D characters, however, the more I got into the story, the more I enjoyed it and I ended up whisking through fairly speedily. I wasn't wrong about where the plot went, but this didn't spoil the anything as the getting there was the important part.
Don't expect a work of deep literature, but read this book for what it is - a fast paced supernatural mystery and you'll probably come away happy.
A last note that I won't post on the review as it seems unfair, but as I was reading, I did keep finding myself comparing the book unfavourably to a childhood favourite, Remember Me by Christopher Pike - another YA book with a similar theme (ghost tries to find own murderer), it's also pretty light weight, but somehow packs a lot more emotional punch and definitely made me think a bit more. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoyed "Ghost of a Chance"
Finally, a review for Ghost of a Chance by Rhiannon Lassiter:
Eva Chance wakes up on the morning of her 16th birthday with nothing to look forward to. To make matters worse, her thoughtless relatives are all descending on the crumbling old mansion that she has lived in with her Grandfather since her birth and the death of her mother. They all know that they could run the dilapidated building better than they can, but are never around for the day to day upkeep when the building is closed to the public.
Something is not right however, her relatives notice her even less than usual and, over the course of the day, Eva realises that she is, in fact a ghost. She's always known that there were nasty dark spots in the building, but now there seems to be something more malignant pervading the whole place. Determining to solve her own murder, she may have something worse to fight against than the machinations of the person who killed her.
My first impressions of this young adult book weren't great - most of the characters seemed a bit cliched and two dimensional and I could see where the plot was going. I'll stick by the 2D characters, however, the more I got into the story, the more I enjoyed it and I ended up whisking through fairly speedily. I wasn't wrong about where the plot went, but this didn't spoil the anything as the getting there was the important part.
Don't expect a work of deep literature, but read this book for what it is - a fast paced supernatural mystery and you'll probably come away happy.
A last note that I won't post on the review as it seems unfair, but as I was reading, I did keep finding myself comparing the book unfavourably to a childhood favourite, Remember Me by Christopher Pike - another YA book with a similar theme (ghost tries to find own murderer), it's also pretty light weight, but somehow packs a lot more emotional punch and definitely made me think a bit more. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoyed "Ghost of a Chance"
