Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Review: PHANTOM SUMMER by Amy Sparling

Taylor is a morose and despondent girl. Her friend Brendan recently died. Was it her fault?


A summer away at her mom's dilapidated place at the beach may just be the thing to help Taylor forget about Brendan--at least, that's her hope. The memories haunt her to this day, yet she shoves them down her throat, drowning them in succulent poison. She doesn't believe in anything and doesn't want to care about anything.


Story was very slow. All Taylor does is walk around this boring town like a sad, cynical drone. What's even more annoying is that she's stuck with people that believe in ghosts. Boy, people really do believe in anything (Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, God, etc.)


I did wonder what happened to Brendan. There was definitely a story there, but Taylor just pitter-patters about it, revealing insignificant snippets here and there. She never really divulges the whole truth. And what was the deal with Raine? It was creepy how he kept appearing out of nowhere. Why did he want to scare her? Why did he want her to believe in ghosts? It seemed that the whole goal of the story was to believe in what you can't see or whatever.


Ensconced in the lame history of a boring town, Taylor becomes Raine's assistant in his ghost tour business. And they spend all summer giving ghost tours to visitors, engaging and entertaining audiences.  


I tried to give this story a chance because it sounded like an interesting story with ghosts and mystery and all, but it just didn't work out that way. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.  


My rating: 2.5 stars

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