Ghost Girl

by Helena McEwen

Thirteen-year-old Cath is a new girl at a Catholic convent. She is afraid of the nuns, unused to the restriction and terrified of God. She finds refuge in nature, and her friend Olive's vision of the starry limitless universe. Cath's sister Very is at art school in seventies Punk London. She lives a wild chaotic life with bedraggled artists, outrageous homosexuals, and shadowy nightclub owners. When Cath visits Very, the two sisters whirl through the city together, along Chelsea Embankment and through the alleys of late-night Soho. But London, like the convent, holds its dangers and Cath must find her own way through.

Genres: Novels, Fiction, British Literature

246 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Mew · Rating 2 out of 5]

It felt as though this should have been better than it was. The blurb on the back cover painted scenes of dark and troublesome childhoods, of intriguing sisterly relationships and of sinister nuns running a medieval-style convent. The book failed to deliver and instead I was left feeling that I had missed something.

[Catherine Jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was in two halves, the convent school and her elder sister’s flat in London. I felt as if the two parts didn’t gel together.

[Gaëlle · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the one hand, Ghost Girl is a lovely, delicate, atmospheric coming-of-age story set in the England of the 70s. The narrator is a dreamy 13-year-old whose parents went to Indonesia, leaving her in an oppressive convent school after a rather carefree childhood in colorful South America. Her only respite are the holidays she spends with her sister in punky, artsy London. As a result, this diary-like story mostly consists in impressions, feelings, melancholy descriptions of colors, people, nature...

On the other hand, I found the lack of storyline a bit upsetting. While I was charmed by the atmosphere and the small bits of life recounted throughout the book, I couldn't help thinking that something was missing and that the novel lacked direction. While the narrative was beautiful, it wasn't enough. In the same way, I was often confused by the abrupt changes of topic: the whole novel is written in the first person and in the present tense, but the narrator frequently and without notice reminisces about past events (and, in some rare instances, even mentions things that happened in the future).

(2.5/5)

[Jacqi Bartlett · Rating 2 out of 5]

A frustrating read. Not poor enough to not finish but disappointing. I wondered if the writing style, jumping from scene to flashback to memory often without it being clear that's what had happened, was supposed to be an idea of how a 13 year old's mind worked, but it didn't work for me. Despite the flashbacks it was well over a hundred pages before there was any indication of the parents, and therefore an explanation of how they came to be apparently alone in the world yet not destitute, and that left me feeling there were too many holes in the story.
It could have been better.

[Emmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. The atmosphere around it made me very relaxed. It's beautifully written, very different from what I'm used to but I am very glad I read this book. I'm not sure if I will ever re-read it but I do know that I won't ever get rid of this book because I'm happy that it's part of my collection.

[Martinxo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written, coming of age story of a 13 year old convent school girl. She hates her convent school and loves her punk-rock-artist older sister. Short and sweet, sad in places, funny in others.

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring.