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Ghosted by Leslie Margolis (2018)

5/20/2019

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By Contributing Reviewer FalconX, Age 11

Thirteen-year-old Ellie Charles is the prettiest, smartest, has the best fashion sense, and is the most popular kid at Lincoln Heights Middle School. She used to be best friends with a girl named Marley, but that fell apart after she moved away. Marley was sweet and understanding, didn't care about fashion, and always knew the right thing to say to comfort Ellie about her parents' frequent fights. Her parent's divorce when she was nine turned Ellie bitter, and she taught herself a lesson she believed was the way to go: The more people feared her, the more people would respect her. Ellie is the head of the most important councils, committees, and clubs at the school, but she uses her power to bully, manipulate, and reduce people to tears; all in order for her to dominate even more of the school. Then, on the night of the big winter dance, Ellie has a terrifying accident, after which she meets a girl, seemingly a ghost, dressed all in black. The "ghost girl" forces Ellie to go through her past, present, and future, reliving the things she has done wrong and the things she will do wrong. The worst memory was not her parents' divorce, but her fight and falling apart with Marley, her former best friend.

Ghosted is a suspenseful, well written book that describes Ellie's past life in amazing detail. Leslie Margolis combines the heartbreak and bitterness of a divorce, realizing what you've done wrong, and what it feels like to have all the power and adoration at your school. I liked this book especially because it was told from the bully's point of view, rather than the other way around, which it usually is. It shows that even though on the outside, bullies seem tough, mean; and like nothing can stop them, but in reality they are scared, or acting that way because of an incident in the past, or maybe because the bullies themselves are being bullied. I would recommend this book to kids age twelve and up, who are looking for a good mystery with a startling reveal at the end.

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