Skip to main content

NOT OF THIS WORLD | BEATING HEART: A GHOST STORY BY A.M. JENKINS




This house
is mine
and
I am
its beating heart.
She is a ghost: a figure glimpsed from the corner of your eye, a momentary chill, and a memory of secret kisses and hidden passion. He is 17 years old: Evan Calhoun, warm and alive, and ever since moving to this big abandoned house, he has dreamt of her. Ghost and boy fascinate each other–until her memories and his desire collide in a moment that changes them both.
Combining verse fragments with chiseled prose, A. M. Jenkins captures the compelling voice of a long–dead ghost and the perspective of a modern teen, twining mystery and romance in this evocative, sensual, and unrelentingly engrossing novel.



★★★☆☆
Evan Calhoun's parents have recently split up. Seventeen year old Evan, his mom, and little sister, all move into this previously long-abandoned mansion his mother is gung-ho about renovating as she pursues a writing career. Also inhabiting the house is the ghost of Cora Royce, who was accidentally murdered in the house at the age of sixteen many, many years ago. Something about Evan reminds Cora of her former (and only) love. Cora comes to Evan in his dreams, giving him sexual experiences that his very much living girlfriend can't compete with. 



Evan's mom finds a dusty, old lock box during some of the renovations. She doesn't find much inside that interests her, so she gives it to Evan. Evan digs into the papers and photos inside. While he finds it interesting, he's also left exasperated that it only offers a few wispy details regarding the life of Cora. There is a photo of her though, which he finds himself quite drawn to, though he also acknowledges how odd it feels to lust after a face long since dead. Evan becomes so consumed and distracted with thoughts of Cora that he begins to forget to pay attention to his girlfriend, Carrie. When they do spend time together, either Evan just seems to want to get right to having sex at the start of each visit, or he's annoyed with Carrie because he feels she's developed this habit of nit-picking every aspect of their relationship. From time to time, there are scenes between Evan and Carrie that Cora shows the reader mirror the more difficult aspects of the brief relationship Cora had with her love interest.



Evan tells his story in classic novel form (and very short chapters) while Cora's voice comes through in verse novel form. 

There was potential here for a pretty neat paranormal story, but the main faultline in the writing is that for such a short book, so many ideas were started but never fully developed. The flow felt clogged with a jumble of plot scenarios the author presented but never entirely followed through on... almost like listening to someone share a pretty good story but then switch topics entirely abruptly, never returning to the main thought. It makes for an aggravating reading experience, for sure. 

Weirdly, the main emphasis is put on sex. SO much time is spent illustrating raging teenage hormones. Things become complicated when Evan feels torn between conflicting emotions he's having for both his living girlfriend, Carrie, and the spirit of Cora. Evan decides to have a serious sit-down chat with Carrie (not bringing up Cora, just a "where we stand" kind of talk), and not surprisingly does not handle the situation all that well. 



For most of the story, I wasn't connecting with any of these characters. The writing overall is good, and Evan's little sister, Libby, is very cute in her innocence about the world... and I did feel sad for her, the way she often so desperately wanted just a little attention from anyone.... but the story didn't really tap into my feels until the sit-down scene with Carrie. Evan's growing emotional distance from her means she's forced to experience some pretty tough emotional territory. These are emotions and experiences that are difficult for anyone at any age in a committed relationship, but wow, especially hard at sixteen when most don't yet have the luxury of developed emotional maturity to fall back on to help get them through such hurdles. Everything feels so much more immense at sixteen. But considering the bombshell she's given, I thought Carrie handled it all with admirable grace & dignity. 

If you're a GAC fan and remember the Valentine's Day special years ago (one of my all time favorite episodes), this story kinda gave me Zak & Jerusha vibes ... but in YA form LOL

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A DRAM OF DRAMA | FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC BY ALISON BECHDEL

FUN HOME   CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, NATIONAL BESTSELLER  Time Magazine #1 Book of the Year  •  National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist  •  Winner of the Stonewall Book Award  •    Double finalist for the Lambda Book Award  • Nominated for the  GLAAD Media Award Alison Bechdel’s groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir that charts her fraught relationship with her late father.  Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.   In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and...
Post a Comment
Read more

HISTORY IMAGINED | A HEART ADRIFT by Laura Frantz

  It is 1755, and the threat of war with France looms over colonial York, Virginia. Chocolatier Esmée Shaw is fighting her own battle of the heart. Having reached her twenty-eighth birthday, she is reconciled to life alone after a decade-old failed love affair from which she's never quite recovered. But she longs to find something worthwhile to do with her life.  Captain Henri Lennox has returned to port after a lengthy absence, intent on completing the lighthouse in the dangerous Chesapeake Bay, a dream he once shared with Esmée. But when the colonial government asks him to lead a secret naval expedition against the French, his future is plunged into uncertainty.  Will a war and a cache of regrets keep them apart, or can their shared vision and dedication to the colonial cause heal the wounds of the past? ★ ★ ★1/2 1755 in Virginia --- As the Revolutionary War revs up, twenty-eight year old chocolatier Esmee Shaw is in her hometown of York, settling into assumed spinsterh...
Post a Comment
Read more

CLASSICS RECYCLED | THE SILENT SONGBIRD by MELANIE DICKERSON --- Landlocked Little Mermaid

Evangeline longs to be free, to live in the world outside the castle walls. But freedom comes at a cost. Evangeline is the ward and cousin of King Richard II, and yet she dreams of a life outside of Berkhamsted Castle, where she might be free to marry for love and not politics. But the young king betroths her to his closest advisor, Lord Shiveley, a man twice as old as Evangeline. Desperate to escape a life married to a man she finds revolting, Evangeline runs away from the king and joins a small band of servants on their way back to their home village. To keep her identity a secret, Evangeline pretends to be mute. Evangeline soon regrets the charade as she gets to know Wesley, the handsome young leader of the servants, whom she later discovers is the son of a wealthy lord. But she cannot reveal her true identity for fear she will be forced to return to King Richard and her arranged marriage. Wesley le Wyse is intrigued by the beautiful new servant girl. When he learns th...
Post a Comment
Read more