Review: Science, ghosts, mystery, and teenage Angst
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 18, 2012
What a pleasant surprise to pick up an indie novel and find it well written, with characters who seem real! Added bonus: science lessons sneaked into the prose in an exciting, mysterious way.The plot itself disappointed me. I kept thinking of a movie I hate, "Woman in Black," and a movie/book I enjoyed, "Holes." The idea is as old as vampires: a ghost is haunting someone because her death was no accident, and the truth must come to light (and/or bones must be reunited). Maybe I particularly dislike this plot because (1) dead is dead, and I can't believe the souls of the departed worry about whatever bones were left behind; (2) if ghosts exist, no fair that I never see any; and (3) my sister was murdered in 1975; no one was ever arrested so we don't know who killed her or why; if ever anyone should come back as a ghost and make sure her killers are identified, it's Julie. She was a Nancy Drew addict and loved a good murder mystery. The ghost in "The Grave Artist" waited 200 years to find a human who could or would tell her story. By then, who cares? Most of us don't even know the name of our great-grandpa, a mere hundred years before our time. How many 20th C people (like my sister) write diaries, have jewelry to bequeath, or use the geometry of universal designs to tell a story? Okay, it's obvious I'm reading outside my genre here. My sister did keep a hand-written diary, but today's young adults leave a scattered trail of text messages. Somehow I have to engage "willing suspension of disbelief" and love a story *not* for what it is (conventional ghost "whodunnit") but for the way it's told and the richness of the characters who help the story unfold.I love the characters in this novel, even if a few of them seem to be contrived -- like an old woman who keeps 200-year-old antiques in her shed, or an old man who frequents a bookstore and just happens to know a lot about Platonic geometry (which reminds me, I never did run to my copy of Sam Kean's "The Disappearing Spoon" to see if I missed any comments he may have made on this intriguing little aspect of the Periodic Table of Elements). Clare's older sister (Laura?) seems like a throwaway character. But in YA novels, siblings often are. :-)In any case, the prose is well edited, the story is engaging, the characters are well drawn and interesting. I love Gollum (Neil). He begs for a sequel or a novel all his own. The plot itself held little interest for me (dead is dead!), but the way the characters gradually learn new things is what kept me turning pages. And of course the science. I learned things -- what a great bonus to sneak into a YA novel!