Review: Cute story, nice messages.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 10, 2013
Crazy Ex-Ghoulfriend is one of those books that makes you glad you are no longer in high school. It's got your typical popular girl vs nerd girl conflicts but with the added benefit of the popular girl becoming a zombie and trying to give her forcing her into a makeover. It's full of the life lessons we have all heard and hopefully learned, but it never hurts to be reminded.Janie is "love" with Wayne. They have been friends since childhood and are neighbors. After Wayne is in a car accident with his girlfriend and Queen Bee, Matilda, due to drinking and driving (MESSAGE!), he finds himself in the hospital, and his girlfriend is dead. Janie becomes Wayne's shoulder to cry on essentially and things start to progress when Wayne shows an interest in Janie in a hilarious first kiss type scene.When Janie comes home to find stinky zombie Matilda lying on her bed, the real story gets started. Up until this point, Janie has been struggling with emotions that I will admit, are somewhat familiar to me. She isn't sad that Matilda died. She's happy about it. But let's face it, Matilda tormented her and made her life hell, creating a division in her friendship with Wayne. I hate to admit it, but I think I would feel the same way. No one wants to feel the way Matilda made Janie feel, and I think she is justified in her feelings. At least she didn't fake it and pretend to be Matilda's BFF like it seems so many people do when someone dies.Matilda's master plan is to make Janie popular so she can become part of the prom committee, suggest a masquerade type them so that Matilda can attend the prom with Wayne, her "one true love", and everyone lives happily ever after. Barf.  There are some pretty obvious holes in Matilda's plan, but hey, she's a teenager, of course she didn't think things through completely.As Janie's popularity grows, so does her head. It is the usual story of the unpopular girl gets a makeover and everyone starts noticing her. She forgets who her real friends are (MESSAGE!). She learns lessons along the way of course and all is right in the world.Overall this was a cute book. I liked the story and it kept my interest throughout the whole book. I didn't feel like there were any lulls in the story, and while many of the characters were pretty one dimensional, it is understandable because the story is more about Janie and Matilda than it is about the other characters. I do think I would have liked a little more back story on why Matilda was the way she was, but even without that information, we can still see who and why she is, at least to some degree.This book is appropriate for most teens and isn't bad to read as an adult. It reminded me in some way of the movie Jawbreaker, where they turn the ugly duckling girl into a beauty and she becomes someone else entirely. It sends positive messages to girls of all ages, and there are not quite enough books today that do that sort of thing. I will be trying to convince my 13 year old to read it.