Darlene's Book Nook: Book Review: Absent by Katie Williams

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Book Review: Absent by Katie Williams

TITLE: Absent

PUBLISHER: Chronicle Books
PUBLICATION DATE: May 21, 2013

FORMAT: Hardcover, 184 pages
GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy/Paranormal
ISBN: 9780312425241

When seventeen-year-old Paige dies in a freak fall from the roof during Physics class, her spirit is bound to the grounds of her high school. At least she has company: her fellow ghosts Evan and Brooke, who also died there. But when Paige hears the rumor that her death wasn't an accident--that she supposedly jumped on purpose--she can't bear it. Then Paige discovers something amazing. She can possess living people when they think of her, and she can make them do almost anything. Maybe, just maybe, she can get to the most popular girl in school and stop the rumors once and for all.

MY REVIEW:

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive any compensation for my review, and the views expressed herein are my own.

This was a great paranormal story with an ending that I didn’t see coming!

Paige Wheeler is a 17 year-old teenager, who has awakened to find that she is on the “other side.” She is now a ghost that is forever tied to the site of her death, which is Paul Revere High School, but at least she is not alone. There are two other former students, who are also bound to the school: Evan and Brooke. Paige is horrified to learn that students think that her death was a suicide. She is adamant that she did not jump off the school roof and maintains that it was an accident.

Paige hears whispers of her name, and she thinks that she is imagining things. They aren’t whispers said aloud, but more like thoughts. She discovers that she can inhabit a person’s body when they think of her, and she seizes this opportunity to try to do damage-control and convince others that she didn’t jump to her death.

I have to admit that it took me a bit to get into this one because I didn’t really care for Paige, who was in a secret relationship with the school jock, Lucas Hayes. I thought that she was weak and didn’t like that she allowed herself to be controlled by someone who didn’t care enough about her to show her off to his friends. It bothered me that she allowed herself to be treated this way, like she was someone’s dirty little secret. However, in the last third of the book, Paige shakes things up by forcing the people that she possesses to do or say things that are out of character. I was amused by her shenanigans, and I really liked how she came to know more about herself. She realizes that she, too, was being judgmental.

This is Williams' sophomore novel, and she really threw me for a loop with an ending that I didn’t see coming. I love it when an author can surprise me like that, and it bumped up my rating from “good” to “great.”

MY RATING:

4 stars!! It was really good, and you should put it on your TBR list! Thanks to Chronicle Books & Raincoast Books for the opportunity to review this book!