Conor Kostick
Viking Juvenile/Penguin Group (2008)
ISBN 9780670062805
Reviewed by Dylan James (age 11) for Reader Views (3/08)
Ghost is named that for a reason: she has no memory of her past. Her only family is a gang that loves tense, death-defying action. She longs to regain her memory, but before long she is mixed up in more than thought possible. There is some crazy girl (or boy?) called Cindella Dragonslayer that tells them that they are living in a game! Then the gang and she meet a creepy assassin called Michelotto that wants Ghost’s help to defeat the dark queen. Ghost doesn’t know what to do. One option is to keep her gang personality and help the humans get out of her world. The other option is to learn her name and past, but she may not have time for the humans.
What Will Ghost DO?
My reader point of view would rate this book as fantastic: recommendable to friends, cool thoughts, and just a plain good book. My reviewer side though noticed things like: repulsive violence, major use of drugs (“jeebies,” rush…), and alcohol. All the main characters are gang members, hence multiple break-ins and defying the law. Just because the dark queen is evil does not make it okay to use drugs, alcohol, any violence they feel like using, plus a whole lot more. The way the (15 and 16-year-old) characters make it seem like everything they do is fine might worry parents. Again my reader side LOVED this book: the action from gangs, the wild stunts, and the freaky parties. But because the violence was just so awful in a few parts, even my reader side was a little shaken. It helped a little (it IS in a game…) that when the big rebellion happened every one knew how awful it was to kill something and were all dead set against it. I recommend the book be for kids ages 14 and up, not 12+. The main thing I loved about this book was that you didn’t have to read the first one to love this one. It all makes since even if you haven’t read the first one, but it will be an over all better experience if you read the first one before this one. The writing in “Saga” was the best I have ever seen as far as everything flowing together.
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