Apparition - YA Bingo

Completed on: November 19th

# of Pages: 275

Bingo Category: A Book with an Epic Love Story

So before I get into the actual discussion/review of this book, I have a little story to share. I was talking with my manager about book series that we would recommend to the other, looking specifically for suspenseful stories after I had finished reading The Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant. To her, I told her she should read the Burn for Burn series by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian, since the series takes quite a few interesting turns. For me, she mentioned Apparition. According to her, a gentleman had come into the store one day to buy this and (if I'm remembering correctly) declared proudly that, "My sister wrote this!" My manager nodded politely, perhaps not taking him seriously at first, but then she took a look at another copy of the book and say that the author is actually from Ontario, in an area that isn't too far off from our own.

Canadian YA books FTW! XD Aside from Eric Walters, Kelley Armstrong and William Bell, I don't know of too many authors that are Canadian that write young adult fiction. Not only did this book capture the setting of a more northern Ontario (northern compared to where I live at least), but the story in general was incredibly enjoyable, and it made me happy to have another Canadian YA author that I can recommend at work.

So now time to chat about Apparition: It's a supernatural crime story, where Amelia has been able to see ghosts her entire life, a fact made relevant to her after her mother passes away from an illness. After one of her best friends dies in a mysterious way it opens up an investigations into all of the murders that have occurred in the Telford Barn over the years. It's a very compelling novel, quite the page turner. It's a suspense novel that even the faint of heart can enjoy.

Amelia, the protagonist of this story, is quite the interesting character. She experiences copious amounts of personal growth throughout the course of the novel, and aside from the fact that she can see ghosts I find her very unique from other leading ladies in young adult fiction. But let's chat about her love life, because that's the bingo square I chose to file this book under. At first it might seem like Amelia's love life is virtually non-existent - the one guy she happens to have a crush on is her best friend, Matthew, and she never ends up getting up the courage to tell him how she feels before he passes away from what looks like a suicide attempt. But during her investigation of his death and the other mysterious deaths that have occurred in the same barn, she partners up with an older journalist Morris, and from there she meets his nineteen year-old son Kip.

One thing that I like about the love plot between Kip and Amelia is that nothing is forced - they start off from a very neutral place (and of course all the while Amelia is marveling at how gorgeous Kip is and how it's impossible that he can't have a girlfriend XD), and how they feel about one another progresses over time, of course with the obstacles thrown in of Amelia being able to see the ghost of her first love and of her idea that Kip has a girlfriend or two back in Chicago. Nothing about how they get to know each other and start to develop feelings towards each other is unrealistic, and without spoiling anything about the story, it ends off in a great place for the next book, with plenty of questions left to be answered and plenty of fun to be had. I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel :)