Book Review: Ghosting by Edith Pattou (@epattou)

Ghosting by Edith Pattou
Publication Date: August 19, 2014
Published: Skyscrape
Source: eARC from Netgalley

My Rating:

On a hot summer night in a Midwestern town, a high school teenage prank goes horrifically awry. Alcohol, guns, and a dare. Within minutes, as events collide, innocents becomes victims—with tragic outcomes altering lives forever, a grisly and unfortunate scenario all too familiar from current real-life headlines. But victims can also become survivors, and as we come to know each character through his/her own distinctive voice and their interactions with one another, we see how, despite pain and guilt, they can reach out to one another, find a new equilibrium, and survive.
Told through multiple points of view in naturalistic free verse and stream of consciousness, this is an unforgettable, haunting tale.

[ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.]

This was my first read from Edith Pattou, and I gobbled it up in the matter of three hours. This very realistic, very tragic tale was easy to swallow thanks to the writing style. There is a severe lack of books written in verse, and even those that are are often told in one point-of-view. The multi-voice chapters kept me enthralled. Each character had a unique voice.

Building up to the main event in this story, I was anxious with anticipation. The tone was foreboding. I knew something bad was coming, but never could have guessed what.

Once "the night" unfolded, my anxiety subsided and was quickly replaced by sadness, not only for Emma, Faith, Felix, Brendan, Maxine, Anil, Chloe, Walter and their families, but for society as it is now, seeing as this very thing could happen in your neighborhood or mine. It *does* happen. I applaud Ms. Pattou for tackling such a controversial subject. Gun violence is something too often kept hushed.

Ghosting is a book about gun violence and how an innocent chain of events can spiral into life-changing catastrophe. But it's not just that. It's about family and friendship. Within these pages were the stories of seven families, with different ways of living. It was interesting to read their varying situations. Highly recommended, emotion provoking read.