I See Dead People

Today's read was Supervision by Alison Stine.

Esme has had a few problems.

She lives with her sister in New York but after the latest incident her sister is shipping her off to her Grandmother who neither girl has seen for years.

The trip is not something she's looking forward to, but it's even worse when she gets there. She arrives at the station only to see her grandmother get in her car and leave without her. Is she holding a grudge from when they moved away? Seem isn't sure as she starts to walk up to the house on her own. When she eventually gets there she heads straight to bed, tomorrow is another day, and that day means school.

If she thought it couldn't get worse, she was wrong.

Teachers don't acknowledge her, the students ignore her, someone even accidentally sits on her... but she does make two friends, Clara and Tom. So she's had a good day... right? Maybe not, because they're dead.

Inherited gifts make for a good storyline, it lets the author share discovery moments and personal histories which add a lot of intrigue and feelings into the writing. It had a good pace to it and a good set of core characters. There were some interesting background characters too and I think it's a shame they weren't featured slightly more in the story.

I did get to the end of the book with a few questions, some bits seemed a little rushed, but that didn't distract from the whole story. Along those lines though, it might have been nice to hear more about the past with relation to the main characters, there is a flashback scene that works (although that left me with some of my questions) and I think having a few more would have added to the understanding of the characters.

The one thing that really caught me at the end of the book was actually the very beginning of it... the title. While I get the connection, I got to the end and was puzzled. It didn't really seem like a good fit. I honestly can't remember ever thinking that about a book before.

All in all it was an enjoyable read with an interesting subject matter and would make a good addition to any secondary library.