Invisible Ghosts

 Invisible Ghosts

Robyn Schneider

Pages 320 (according to Goodreads)

4 Stars

Hello Book lovers,

This past week I decided to abandon my current reads and crack open a book that has been on my Amazon Wishlist for the past 6 months. So I went on the library app, Libby, gotta start saving for Holiday shopping. Anyways it did not take much to get hooked up on this book and I gobbled it up in between classes, during homework breaks, and before bed.

This book follows Rose Asher, a high school Junior who loves to fade into the background. She lowkey hates her friends and holds herself back from doing things that make her truly happy. Rose’s reasoning for living her life in the shadows is that her brother Logan, who died when he was 15 still visits her and she spends a lot of her free time watching old Doctor Who reruns with him. However, things start to change when Rose’s old friend Jaime Aldridge moves back to town and the two begin to date. Suddenly Rose starts to come out of her own bubble and start to live her life however Logan becomes upset that Rose is spending less time with him and makes her choose between her happiness and seeing him.

Laguna Canyon was no stranger to ghosts, both the kind that blew in with the Santa Ana winds and the kind that sat in your classroom looking nothing like you remembered.

There were a lot of things that I loved about this book but let me start with the setting. The city that Rose lives in is called Laguna Canyon which I’m pretty sure is a fictional town but nevertheless the story is set in So Cal, probably somewhere in Orange County. Anyways because of this Rose, on numerous times, mentions the Santa Ana Winds. I wrote down 3 instances in which she mentions them! If you don’t know the legend/story behind the Santa Ana Winds these winds are believed to be supernatural and makes people do crazy things. There’s a whole essay written about this phenomena and it is even mentioned in Emergency Contact, another YA novel. Anyways I thought this was perfect to include in this book given the whole ghosty vibes this book gives off.

Something else I enjoyed was that Jamie’s race is explicitly stated. According to Rose, Jamie is actually part Filipino on his mother’s side. Personally I always enjoy some POC rep in my books so this nod made me pretty excited for the rest of this book. Aside from that Jamie’s entrance into this story is also pretty iconic, Rose explains that he blew back into her life because of the Santa Ana winds which spoiler alert, Rose isn’t the only ghost whisperer in her town. Now that I think about it tying Jamie’s entrance into the story with the supernatural winds foreshadow his own supernatural abilities which are revealed later.

And the last thing I wanted to mention that I enjoyed was that the popular student group are all super nice. Which is refreshing because story after story and show after movie the popular kids are often depicted as mean and bullies. However, the popular crew in Invisible Ghosts are super nice and super supportive of each other as well as Rose even before she joins their ranks. I remember fellow bookstagramer ShelvesofYa pointing out popular mean group cliché so I was surprised that this group of friends were actually super nice and supported of each other.

So why only 4 stars instead of 5 I did gobble up this book after all. Well my main problem was that I hated Logan’s character. I mean for a ghost he was super selfish and did not seem to care that Rose was basically wasting her life away because of him. On top of that homeboy threw so many tantrums when things didn’t go his way. I mean I get that he was 15 when he died but the boy needed to tone down the teen angst.