Notes from Ghost Town

While going through the library, Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison was actually the first book on my list that I picked up. This book is also not something I normally grab. It's a mystery with a bit of a ghost story. I'm trying to read things that are more outside of my fairytale and paranormal romance range, and I remembered that it looked good when I added it to my list. I was right!


Stars: 5/5
Overview:
    Olivia is an art student with a brilliant pianist best friend, Stern. Our story starts out with her preparing to return to art school with Stern's help. The two are realizing their feelings for each other have been evolving over the many years they've been friends. Before they can do anything about it, Stern is gone. Murdered. The suspect, Olivia's mother who is schizophrenic. Olivia's family and world are being torn apart. In addition to her now broken home, Olivia has stopped being able to see color. How can an artist who can't see color continue to paint and draw?
    The heartache doesn't stop there. Her father is already remarrying. She's moved from her family home, built by her father. And, to top it off, Olivia starts seeing Stern's ghost. Or does she? Schizophrenia is hereditary. Is she starting to lose her mind? The apparition of Stern tells her that her mother is innocent, but can't tell her anything other than that.
    Olivia is forced to fight with herself, the fear that she is "going crazy", just like her mother, and the possibility that she might be sane. She's falling in love all over again with a possible figment of her imagination. At the same time, a local private school hottie with close ties to her family is trying to catch her attention. With her paranoia growing, everyone telling her to let her mom and Stern go and the grief piling up inside her, what's a girl to do? Who can she trust? Is she really losing it?

Thoughts:
    I loved this book. So far, I've loved it more than anything I've read on the list. It kept me tied to it. I was walking into the hospital Belle style, not looking at anything but the pages as I made my way from my car to the floor I work on the night I started reading it. I finished it in two days, but only because I was working both nights and I do 12 hour shifts. Had I not been working and not needing to do homework/write a paper, I'd have finished this in hours. My co-workers were laughing at me.
    This book isn't perfect. I noticed continuation errors. The author would forget a character had done something and either re-do it or comment on how it hadn't been done. Things like that stick out in my head. It wasn't a huge issue. They were little things that I believe most people would over look. I actually came to like all the characters and I wasn't at all expecting the twist. While I knew it was coming, I didn't guess THAT would be it.
    I have another book by this author sitting in the pile at home and I think it will be the next one I start. Happily, this was a stand alone book! Score! The number on the list clicks down.

Still...

Guess I better get to reading,
Cho