Vintage: A Ghost Story

Vintage’s protagonist is an unnamed mostly closeted gay teen, who I will call MC (short for “Main Character”) from here on out. MC ran away from home after his parents reacted badly to learning that he was gay, so now he lives with his aunt, who he’s afraid might do the same thing. The only people who know his secret are his new friend Trace and several other friends she introduced him to.

His life here is better than it had been back with his parents. He has friends, he’s convinced his aunt to let him drop out of school and get his GED and work instead, and he likes his job at the vintage clothing shop. Still, a part of him is always afraid that the wrong person will find out he’s gay and ruin everything and, at the same show more time, he desperately wants a boyfriend. When he sees a cute boy in vintage clothes walking alone, he takes a risk and talks to him. And even though he’s a weird goth kid talking to a guy dressed like a jock, it doesn’t go badly! Unfortunately for MC, Josh, the cute boy, is a ghost.

At first, MC and Trace are delighted at the prospect of meeting a real ghost. However, things soon take a turn for the worse. Josh follows MC home. Although MC is excited that a boy is finally interested in him, Josh’s touch could literally suck the life out of him. Josh’s raging jealousy is another problem. If MC and Trace can’t figure out how to put Josh to rest, MC and anyone he cares out could end up dead.

The first half of this book wasn’t my cup of tea at all. Nearly every character was messed up in some way, and it seemed like a potentially murderous ghost was the least of their problems. Liz's parents were mostly absent. Trace's mother was in an institution, her older brother, Mike, was either dead or a runaway, and her mother had her younger brother as a replacement for her older brother, even going so far as to name him after him. MC had tried to commit suicide in the past but instead had just woken up in a puddle of his own vomit.

MC’s friends’ idea of fun was getting together and drinking something called Jim Joneses, a mixture of different flavors of Kool-Aid, vodka, and, in one special glass, a random crushed up pill from the hostess’s medicine cabinet. At the particular gathering featured in the book, they then tried out a Ouija board - at the time, only Trace and MC knew it would be a bad idea for MC to be involved in anything like that.

At any rate, this had more drug use and steamier sex than I generally expect to find in a young adult book. For those wondering, I felt the drug use was at least presented as a negative thing, and the sex (a couple scenes, if I remember right) was explicit enough to include bodily fluids but wasn’t otherwise very detailed.

The second half of the book was better than the first. It included more ghost scenes, including one aspect I love in “I can see ghosts” stories: MC realizing that he can’t always tell when the person he’s seeing or talking to is a ghost or not. Creepy. My favorite instance of this involved a ghost with a connection to one of MC’s friends.

Another nice thing about the second half of the book was the way MC gradually gained self-confidence. He learned that there were more supportive people in his life than he realized, and he started a relationship with a boy who was a much healthier option than Josh. I liked how their relationship progressed, and I liked the way MC did his best to keep from rushing him into anything. They seemed like they’d make a sweet couple.

I thought I’d end up hating this book, but it actually grew on me. I don’t know that I’d ever want to reread it, but if there were ever a sequel I’d probably give it a shot. And I’d hope that Mike got a prominent role. Considering his situation, it was amazing how well-adjusted he was. Instead of ingesting pills like everyone else, he created amazing sculptures.

One thing I’m still wondering about: why MC was never named. At first, I assumed it was a sign of his low self-esteem. If someone had told him he was a character in a book and asked him to guess what his role probably was, in the first half of the book he’d probably have said Trace was the main character and he was her sidekick. He viewed her as perfect and wonderful, while he was anything but. It was painful. He became more confident later on, but when the perfect opportunity presented itself for the author to finally have another character name him, all readers got was something along the lines of “He said my name.” If the name thing had been meant as an indicator of his feelings about himself, it would have made more sense to have someone finally say his name at some point near the end.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

A spooky but somewhat absurd ghost story. A gay goth kid meets and is preyed upon by the handsome ghost of a jock from the 50s. The atmosphere is tense, and the rapport between this character and his best friend Trace, as well as his best friend's cutie-pie younger brother, are sizzly and fun. Many of the secondary characters, however, speak and behave in a way that struck me as strangely unnatural. And the central ghost story is kind of campy, to be frank.

Following a suicide attempt, Berman's nameless teen protagonist starts being able to see and speak to ghosts. He also falls in love with one: the spirit of a high school jock who was hit by a car in 1957. It's every emo kid's dream, right? Ahh, but of course there is a catch—namely, that the ghost, Josh, has major jealousy issues; his death may have been related to the fact that he thought his boyfriend, Roddy, was cheating on him with another guy.

Berman does a great job with atmosphere—his spirits are really creepy, and he achieves this without the slightest bit of Stephen King- (or even "Sixth Sense"-) level gore. He also creates for the nameless narrator a really interesting group of friends: goth gal extreme Trace; Trace's show more intriguing younger brother, Second Mike; girlfriends-on-the-outs Maggie and Liz. (Though why the fifth, Kim, is always referred to as "the annoying Asian girl" or "the skinny Asian girl" is beyond me. Dude, we get it: SHE'S ASIAN. Did someone of Asian-extraction dent your car or something?) Oddly, though, despite its promising beginnings, the book actually becomes *less* suspenseful as it goes along; the climax was not nearly as intense or as frightening as it ought to have been. The book is still compelling, but it needed a little extra oomph at the end. (Maybe Bruce Willis should've shown up just so the narrator could tell him he was already dead.) show less

The story is told in first person by the main character, a teenager, and so we never know his name. I actually realized that I didn't know that name well past the mid of the book, and this is a clue that I was so enthralled by the story to not take care to 'small' details like that.

Our hero is a runaway teenager; when he came out with his parents, he was kicked out from home but lucky him he found shelter with his aunt. Probably still suffering from the reject of his family, he retired into his shell, and he only relates with his best friend, a girl named Trace. Both Trace and him have their problems to overcome and in their difference they find a common path: goth teens who go to funerals to spend time, dressing like the adults they show more still aren't.

Actually our hero was quite lucky and he now has a comfortable and welcoming home with his aunt, and so his problems are the same of a normal teen: the insecurity of a guy who wonders if he is good enough to attract a boyfriend, the daydreams of a young man who is approaching to sex for the first time. Probably since he has this strange familiarity with death, our hero is not so shocked when he meets a ghost: Josh is an 18 years old guy dead in a car accident in 1957. He is not only a teen like our hero, he is also a very handsome guy, a jock; and like every goth teen should do in high school, our hero falls in love for the jock, but this time the jock reciprocates the interest... there is only the little fact that Josh is dead and that his interest in our hero is very deeply, almost lethal.

Meantime our hero realizes that the little brother of his best friend Trace, Mike, is already fifteen years old and rather cute; Mike is clever and tender, with a joy for life that is involving. Where Josh is shadow and night, Mike is full light and sun. Where Josh arises in our hero dark desires (that are actually normal sexual urges in a teen...), Mike inspires him cuddles and playful kiss. From not having the hope to find a boyfriend, our hero now has two boys around him, but it's not a situation he can bring along forever. You could say that Josh represents the dark side of our hero, and staying with him is like choosing to not coming out from the darkness, meanwhile Mike is the light, the future that he could have if he chooses to leave behind his sense of abandonment.

Even if the story deals with quite sad things, dead people (not only Josh), the whole feeling I had of the book is of 'lightness'. The author is very good in taking the reader glued to the book till the last page, both for the mystery than for the romance; there is also a switch in the story that seems to lead to an angst ending, but still the author chooses for a more 'normal' development. All this concurs to the lightness of the story, making it a very good read both for a young adult than for an adult too.

Also the love story between our hero and Mike is light, fresh and sweet; where our hero maybe could be ready for something more, Mike is still 15 years old, and so, for me, it's right that they don't become too involved; they are still boys, not men.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1590210530/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less

This being a ghost story you would expect some strange stuff. However, the strangest thing that I just realized after trying to start this review, is that I really don't think we ever found out the first name of the main character. Something you would think would be glaringly obvious while reading a book, but I never noticed until now (unless I'm just completely losing it!) Putting that aside, I have to say I really enjoyed this book. I'm not a huge horror fan so it was good that although the book was very creepy it never ran to extreme violence or absolute terror, which really would have turned me off.

This story is about a goth teen with many problems; he has run away from his home, dropped out of school, has a morbid fascination with show more death and is gay (not that this last is necessarily a problem, only in that having others find out is what caused his other issues). However, the most disturbing problem is an ability he has yet to realize, one that could lead to a potentially deadly crush.

Although the descriptions seemed rather scarce, we still got a very good view of all the characters, including our nameless lead and his various acquaintances. I especially liked Trace and Second Mike, their family dynamics being unusual and intriguing. I also very much appreciated the main character's compassion when dealing with everything from the ghosts (at least the ones that aren't completely horrifying) to his blossoming physical relationship and knowing some things need to be taken slow (I have one scene in particular in mind, but won't say more so I'm not giving spoilers).

I thought this was a very good ghost story, almost as creepy as "The Monkey's Paw" which has always rather freaked me out, rounded out by an additional focus on personal relationships and what it means to be gay in an oftentimes unaccepting environment.

One last little thing I wanted to mention is that I noticed and wanted to give a thumbs up to is the little fan service the author gives to his friend, Holly Black, who is also one of my favorite authors. show less

Interesting young adult ghost story. This is narrated by a gay teenager whose name we never learn, who starts into a strange and spooky relationship with a ghost, and eventually finds a live love interest, which causes some supernatural drama. Genuinely scary at some points, and also poignant in the characterization of the main character, who was kicked out of his house by his parents for being gay and now lives with an aunt. Recommended.
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Enjoyable, but it lost the ghost plot after a quarter, for a whole half! But it was enjoyable anyways.