Anya's Ghost

Anya's Ghost Vera Brosgol

Anya Borzakovskaya has 1 friend, who isn't that nice. She has a massive crush on a boy from the basketball team (but he already has a girlfriend). She's dealing with her exploding body (mainly by refusing to eat the fattening Russian food her mother cooks) and trying to avoid the one other Russian-immigrant kid in school.

Then she falls down a well and meets the ghost of a girl who fell down the well and died 90 years prior. When Anya's rescued, the ghost follows her. At first, have a ghost BFF is pretty cool-- she can sneak around and see the answers the other kids are writing on their tests, she can sneak into people's lockers to come up with good conversation topics. But, it quickly becomes apparent that the ghost is more than a little unbalanced and has her own motives and goals. She'll stop at nothing to get them, so Anya has to deal with her, and fast, before things get deadly.

Brosgol's drawing style really reminds me of Reina Telegemeier's (whom I adore). Something about the way they do faces, especially in profile. The book is mostly black/white/shades of grey, but the grey sometimes veers a bit purple, especially in the scenes that are just between Anya an the ghost. I should probably go back and do an in-depth color analysis.

As much as the ghost tries to ruin Anya's life, their interactions and the consequences show Anya a lot about what's important and what's really going on in her relationships and with the people around her. As scary as the ghost is, Anya comes out on the other end as a much better person, but in a totally believable way.

I liked it.


Book Provided by... my local library

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