Review: Feel like going on a fast-paced, quirky journey of emotional self-discovery?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 7, 2013
In her novel, Breathing Ghosts, Kemp does an amazing job of exploring the varied dimensions of grief through the eyes of her troubled protagonist, River. The reader is drawn along with the suffering young man as he literally travels through the painful loss of his dead girlfriend, Nia. For years Nia worked on a map in the desperate hope that she and River could escape the boxes that their families had jammed them into. After her death, River runs wild across state after state chasing Nia's ghost, finding a few friends along the way and dropping in on the most out-of-the-way, quirky tourist attractions one can imagine.The author allows River and Nia's story to unfold through a series of well-placed flashbacks. They have been high school sweethearts but two more opposite young people one is not likely to meet. Nia is a born adventurer. In her own words - she is not afraid to get lost in things that might disappear. River is trapped in a web of intergenerational dysfunction that binds him to an emotionally unavailable mother and a violently abusive step-father. River is filled to the bursting point with fear. By the end of the book the reader longs for the same lesson River so desperately needs. "Because maybe the truth is we are all made of star stuff." We have to let go of the past and move forward - there is no other choice.Kemp brings it all to life with stunning descriptions. This little gem is Bourbon Street in New Orleans, ". . . the sulfur smell of the pier dribbling in with hints of cayenne and gasoline . . ." At another stop, River learns that, "Makin' things ain't about being right or wrong. Makin' things is about takin' a piece of you and leavin' it for the rest of us to find later." Kemp has certainly taken these words to heart and has given us a stunning piece of her own imagination.I would recommend this book for mature young adults and for anyone who wants to go on a fast-paced journey of emotional self-discovery.