Rhiannon LassiterRessenyes

Fantasy

A family of six on vacation in an old mansion; a rivalry of names; an old game of make-believe; creepy dolls; bird children; evil trees; a couple of mocking reflections and a curious red-headed boy named Fox. These are some of the ingredients that make this book such an interesting read for fans of mysterious and intriguing plot and characters.

Book received for LTER several years ago. Not read as the third book in a series and unable to acquire the previous two books. I did greatly enjoy another of Rhiannon Lassiter's books but this one is being removed from my collection.

Free book I got from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

This book turned out to be much better than I initially anticipated and I'm sure I'll read it over and over. This is a great example of well done science fiction!

Aaargh! Cliffhanger!

I really, really need to pay more attention to cover blurb about sequels. And to find out if those sequels are readily available before I start reading.

The book has one of those great 'uh oh' moments when all the plot threads come together and you realise just how disastrous the disaster is going to be.

Creepy goodness, excellently difficult, sometimes un-likeable characters that I came to sympathise with - well, okay, not the mum, but I suspect she was meant to piss me off.

It is the un-likeable characters that I like so much in Lassiter's books. Not merely characters who are misunderstood by others - in Bad Blood, Cat is not misunderstood at all - but clever, interesting girls who are smart but sometimes very wrong.

Hex is a science fiction novel set in future London which follows Wraith and Raven through their quest to find their sister. Years ago from the story's timeline, humans who were mixed with the genes of computers were created so that humans could have the ability to commune with technology. Soon, they were all to be executed because they were harmful but only a few people has escaped the government while the captured were treated cruelly and experimented on.

It is Eva’s 16th birthday, but there is no celebration. No one wishes her happy birthday, not even her grandfather, but she is used to being neglected and ignored a lot of the time – though Grandfather cares about her, he is very old and in poor health, and her birthday isn’t seen as a very happy occasion, as Eva’s mother died on the same day she was born. It is some time before she realises she is invisible to all around her and finds herself talking to ghosts – it seems she is one too. She is assumed to have killed herself like her mother. Eva doesn’t believe that and sets out to investigate her own murder.

This young adult ghost story/mystery is not particularly original but Lassiter’s mixture of ingredients borrowed from all over the place was an entertaining and enjoyable read.

Eva is an orphan, who lives in a decaying stately home with her grandfather. She is an imaginative person who likes to read and has been able to see ghosts all her life – she remembers playing with an 18th century little boy. There are lots of scheming relatives, aunts and cousins, who are hoping for a good inheritance when the old man dies and have no time for Eva. Now Grandfather has been taken to hospital and they are already coming in and arranging tour parties around the House. Her cousin Felix, just a little older than Eva, confidently expects to be the heir and is looking around for her body. He is a truly nasty character I loved to hate – perhaps he is a bit obvious and two-dimensional, but this is a modern fairy tale and the villains in fairy tales are rarely rounded characters.

There is more about class in this story than I remember in the children’s stories of historic houses and ghosts I read when I was young. Maggie is a resentful ghost servant girl who is suspicious of Eva as one of the Chance family who exploited her when she was alive. Among the living there are brother and sister Kyra and Kyle, locals who have come to work at the House – they can see Eva. Kyra bullied Eva when they were at school together, but Eva sees another side of her now. Eva must forge new links with these unlikely allies if she is not only to find out what happened to her but to prevent further bad things happening.

There are a quite a few twists and turns in the story - while there is nothing particularly astonishing, I enjoyed the read and think lots of teenagers would too.½

Ah, this book reminded me so much of my first reading experiences that I couldn't help but love it. When I was much younger and had read more of The Babysitters' Club and Sweet Valley High than was probably healthy, I turned to the somewhat darker Goosebumps series by R.L.Stine, including such classics as Say Cheese and Die and Monster Blood. Anyone else read this? No? Just me then...

What I loved about those books, and indeed this one, was the unashamed use of the supernatural. I'm sure I've made this point before but I respect authors who will weave the supernatural into a story so tightly that it just seems to belong, rather than wasting time on characters who don't want to believe etc or worrying about whether the book is 'realistic'. The ghosts in this book are exactly that. Eva finds herself a ghost despite having no recollection at all about how she died. Rather than spending endless pages pondering the nature of the soul or not believing her predicament, there's good balance and timing for the phasing of reluctance into acceptance.

One strong point is Lassiter's expansion on what could have been a cheesy ghost theme. The ghosts of the House are varied and unique. Some ghosts were nothing more than a single feature, like 'The Stalker' that has nothing but the desire to kill other ghosts, while others retain their personalities and 'grip' on the world, like Eva. I found myself drawn into the tangled web of the ghosts in spite of myself and felt like that made it more than normal.

Obviously I couldn't review this book without mentioning Eva. Eva Chance is a social outcast and something of a recluse. Bullied by her schoolmates, she has all but retreated to the House. Her aching loneliness tugged at even my old heartstrings and it reminded me of all the harsh points about being a teenager. Eva's family and its history (which is suitably tortured...) make for great back story too.

Outside of the Chance family are Kyle and Kyra, employed to spruce the House up in time for the tourist season. Kyle is kind of sweet and features nicely as a 'white knight' type figure. Kyra, however, was a weak link for me. She is Eva's nemesis, so much as teenagers can have nemeses and is actually rather irritating to read. She is everything a stereotypical teenage character shouldn't be - arrogant, rude, ignorant and a bully. Still, her ability to annoy is dampened by the curiosities of those around her so it's not all bad!

The mystery element plays nicely alongside the ghost story and make for a tale worthy of any teenager's time. My only real criticism was that the ending (that I obviously won't give away) was a little too convenient for my taste. I would guess, however, that that is largely as a result of it being a story for younger readers so I won't grumble too much.

A final noteworthy point: I stayed up late because I had to read the end of this book. To anyone who knows me, this is high praise indeed. I require at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night or I am unfit for polite society. With this, I was gripped and tugged on into the darkness by that same urge that kept the teenage me huddled under a duvet turning pages feverishly. I accept that it might have been an exercise in reminiscing but golly it was fun!

Overall: I would definitely recommend this to early-late teens looking for something a bit more mature and (I'll admit it) creepy! It's very much a 'YA' book but a great one for the genre that offers something new in a paranormal sphere dominated by vampires and werewolves - I won't be passing it on to the adults in my life but I'll almost definitely give my copy to a younger cousin at some point for her to enjoy as an introduction to something new. Read it late at night for maximum "enjoyment"!½

Eva Chance wakes up on the morning of her 16th birthday with nothing to look forward to. To make matters worse, her thoughtless relatives are all descending on the crumbling old mansion that she has lived in with her Grandfather since her birth and the death of her mother. They all know that they could run the dilapidated building better than they can, but are never around for the day to day upkeep when the building is closed to the public.

Something is not right however, her relatives notice her even less than usual and, over the course of the day, Eva realises that she is, in fact a ghost. She's always known that there were nasty dark spots in the building, but now there seems to be something more malignant pervading the whole place. Determining to solve her own murder, she may have something worse to fight against than the machinations of the person who killed her.

My first impressions of this young adult book weren't great - most of the characters seemed a bit cliched and two dimensional and I could see where the plot was going. I'll stick by the 2D characters, however, the more I got into the story, the more I enjoyed it and I ended up whisking through fairly speedily. I wasn't wrong about where the plot went, but this didn't spoil the anything as the getting there was the important part.

Don't expect a work of deep literature, but read this book for what it is - a fast paced supernatural mystery and you'll probably come away happy.½

This book was given to me as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers programme.

This is a continuation of the storyline started in Outland. The two groups have had their differences officially settled by the court and the punishment is then meted out. For Morgan and Alex, this means being returned to their home world although the twins say they will transport them, and we know straight off this will not happen. So no surprise when it doesn't and the twins take them off to a different world entirely. The others decide to go looking for a character who was briefly introduced at the start of the first book and has been briefly alluded to since. This involved them going off to a different world in order to access the character's home world. And as before, just as the plot started to get interesting, the book finished.

I said of Outland that there were a lot of characters and now there's even more. As before, they're all very flat and each one is reduced to one characteristic which is repeated ad nauseum. It just meant that I didn't really care about any of them. A lot of the characters actually annoy me, especially the twins. There's obviously something strange about them, which we've had drummed into us since they first appeared in book 1, but there's no further information on that coming even after 3 books. The details provided by the author is strange. The information I want to know is not forthcoming, while the information I already know is repeated over and over again. I know that Laura can't see, I know that she manipulates people for her own aims and these are the things that I'm constantly being reminded of, rather than being told more about her background, her family, her history or more of her personality. All of the characters act in a very black and white way which perhaps makes it easier for the author to keep a handle on them all.

There's also too many locations and worlds. There's been no further information about how they all fit together within the Library, how the Library works or anything like that. There was a tiny teaser of some of the Library's past in this book, we learned that there were previous groups who have since disappeared, but it's just not enough to keep it interesting. There's only so long I'm happy to read while not having a clue what's going on. I think the author has overstretched herself and made the world too big to be contained in such short books and such a short series. This is book 3 of 5, by now I expected to have some answers but there haven't been any.

This book was quite some time in the reading. I started it at the end of October 2010 but wasn't able to finish it before I went away on holiday; I then had to get another copy of the book from the library in order to read the last few pages but as I couldn't remember any of it, I had to read the whole thing again!

I found the world of the Rights of Passage series to be a little confusing. Worlds are accessed through magic doorways and there seemed to be just too many different doorways to work out how they all fitted together. The first book is set in the land of Shattershard which has since been destroyed and so the original characters have now divided into two groups, travelling throughout these magic doorways. Outland follows the two groups with the story swapping between the two threads. The first group is returning to the Great Library and the second ends up there accidentally. The second group actually gets to the Library fairly quickly and explore another doorway from there because they can't find anyone in the Library to help them. Which seemed kind of odd. I couldn't understand the reasoning behind having them find the new land and spend a substantial amount of time there.

There's quite a few characters, 4 in the first group and 4 in the second, which I think explains why they're all a bit two-dimensional and lacking any real personality. There's the most basic rationale given for why they do anything but at the same time, it's repeated often. It's as though each character has one level and that's their entire motivation which makes them boring and the story is dull because there's no surprise in it. The story itself is dragged out exponentially and just as it started to get somewhere, it ended. I think it was supposed to be a cliffhanger, it just didn't tease me enough to read any further.

This is the story of Eva Chance, a young lady living in her ancestral home with her grandfather, who finds out she has died and she is, in fact, a ghost. Greedy family are milling around trying to get the house fit for the public so that it will make them lots of money - only Eva and her grandfather are against this. Other main characters are Kyra and Kyle Stratton, local twins who are doing temporary work at the house. Kyra used to bully Eva at school because of Eva's strange clothing and weird ways.

This is a nice enough book, but not really my kind of thing. I like a book to have some level of plausibility in it and this one really didn't. I think if you can suspend belief (not necessarily with regard to ghosts, but in the things that they do) and you enjoy a nicely written young adult book then you'll probably enjoy it. It took me a little while to get into it, but once I did I found it an easy read.

I think Rhiannon Lassiter is a good writer, and she's obviously got a vivid imagination. I would read another book by her, but wouldn't necessarily rush to do so.

I probably should have guessed from the cover design but I actually hadn't realised until this book arrived that it is aimed at children (or maybe young adults?) I have to say that was a shame because I wouldn't have requested it if I'd known. It's not a bad story at all - ghosts in a big old house, one of whom takes a while to discover she is dead and has to solve the mystery of her own murder - and the fact that before I'd got half way through the book I didn't really care who had killed her is no reflection on the book itself, only on the fact that it wasn't something I was particularly interested in reading. If I have a minor complaint about the writing it's that I don't really understand why an English writer has to write her stories in teen-American but, again, that comes as a product of my age. Other reviewers clearly enjoyed the book but it was a real struggle for me to get to the end and a huge relief when I did. I just don't think I'm the right person to review this particular work and at least part of the blame for that must go to the publishers who, in their eagerness to get free reviews, didn't think it was necessary to aim the book at its most appropriate market. Readers still in their teens should completely ignore my review - readers over 20 should probably ignore the book.

Let down by the ending, this is otherwise a very creepy YA horror story. Completely free of gore, nethertheless it sends chills down your spine and tingling over your shoulder very much in the manner of MR James' best ghost stories.

A modern family - comprising of two remarried children and each of their children (a boy and a girl each). Decide to go on holiday to the ex-wife's family home in the Lake District. The boys generally get along, but the two girls Katherine and Catronia (both called cat) despise each other, starting with the theft of "their" name by the other girl. Very quickly the children notice there are lots of weird things about the house. A collection of mutilated dolls with one pristine leader; books with every character's name fiercly excised; and shapes that appear in the depths of mirrors. As the children explore the surrounding, they find many other curisoities, and some of the local children don't seem that normal either. When one of the girls finds her mum's old diary with details of the "Make Believe Game" that they used to play, events begin to make sense. Then on a night riven by a massive storm, Cat takes things too far, and the other Cat resorts to the diary to make things even.

The beginning and even middle is really good, very atmospheric, and creepy. Once the non-human creatures start to appear the belivability and suspense rachets down and the whole thing feels a lot more YA. The ending is a let down in turns of drama although well plotted and imaginative. I did think there was more that could have been done with the concept. There are also some loose ends in that how/why of Delima is never explained, and she passes out of the story.

The characters suffer the same lack - superficially quite good, but when examined in detail, there are many flaws. The fmaily structure is also quite confusing and it takes a while to get used to how each child is related. Catroina, for example, is supposed to be a modern 'hip' girl, concerned with fashion and image, but this never really comes across properly. She has no reaction at all to stepping in a muddy puddle for example. The emphasis on the technology seems forced rather than natural. The young boy, John, fails as a 10 yr old, suddenylgaining wisdom beyond his years and overcomoing fears in a very unbeiable manner.

The prose is quite readable, but the sudden jumps from character to character are disconcerting at times. The story probably suffers form too many people. It might have worked better with just two children and locals. Overall though, its worht reading for the inital creepiness, and the author certainly has the talent to keep an eye on, but this may not be the peak of her skills.

Sometimes when you get a book to review that you didn't really know much about there's the risk of it turning out rather badly and then what the hell do you do? But I am very happy to say that this was not the case with Ghost of a Chance- no sirree I was most pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, I actually re-read it a couple of days ago and although I knew how it ended I still really loved the story and the characters.

Living in a crumbling old mansion, with centuries of family history Eva Chance is the black sheep of the family prowling about the House and gardens like a wild thing. It's on the day of her 16th birthday - April Fool's Day that she finds out something very shocking - she's in fact dead and somehow hadn't noticed. She's now got to try and discover who killed her and when most people can't see her it's gonna be a bit difficult without help.

That's where Kyra and her twin brother Kyle come in - when they begin to notice the strange things going on at the Chance House it becomes apparent that something supernatural is the cause and despite the fact that Kyra used to pick on Eva for being a bit weird, they both want to help her find out what happened to her.

This book had two great features going for it - really interesting characters that you could love even if they could be irritating (I'm looking at you Felix), and one heck of a mystery coupled in with all the creepiness of the House Ghosts. I had no clue how the book was gonna end and I was damn surprised when I found out and I loved it! The supernatural aspects of the story worked really well with the realistic aspects and overall the book was executed rather fabulously.

I found all the gruesome Chance family history fascinating and how it ties into the various ghosts which occupy the House. I'm sure anyone who's been to a supposedly haunted house would get a scary thrill from this aspect of the book. The tension from not knowing who is behind the attacks on the Chance family members makes for a very exciting read and I was determined not to put the book down until I'd finished it.

Overall a refreshingly unusual YA read with a wonderful mix of mystery, history and characters, and a really great ending that left me wanting to see more about Eva, Kyle and Kyra. Plus I gotta mention Nathan - the cutest five-yr old that I've read about in ages- on the three occasions that he appeared in the story I was grinning at how adorable and sensible he was compared to all those silly adults who smiled indulgently at the idea of a ghost in wellies :P½

There appears to be some mixed reviews of this book, which I suppose is understandable, but I for one really enjoyed it. I had quite a few review books to look at, and I expected this one to move down the pile a bit, as the author was unknown to me.. but once I started, I found it hard to put down until finished.

The thing to remember is that this book is aimed at young adults, and I think it hits it's target audience just right. That's not to say that us grown ups can't enjoy it as well, but it lacks the complex characters and darker horror which may be expected. Thinking back to my younger days, however, when teen fiction was severely lacking, I would have loved something like this.

Eva Chance lives a difficult life. Her mother died the day she was born, and the only person in her family who wanted her was her grandfather, who she now lives with in their sprawling, decaying stately home.

On her 16th birthday, Eva discovers that she is in fact now a ghost - her disappearance has been put down to suicide, but Eva knows she must have been murdered, although she has no memory of this.

During the rest of the book, Eva finds out more about the world of spirits she now inhabits, as she strives to discover what happened to her. Some she befriends, whilst others are to be feared.. even as a ghost herself.

The feel of the book and the level of horror betrayed seemed to be balanced just right - it has a creepy feel, with many of the characters being genuinely afraid. The 'witch', the main power behind all that is wrong in the house exerts a malevolent presence.

YA horror seems to be a growing trend, following on from the paranormal romance books which seemed to take over. As many readers my age were reading the likes of Stephen King as young adults, this genre is a welcome trend - and Ghost of a Chance is a good addition to it.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book as the author is new to me, but I found this to be a fast paced enjoyable read. The book had a great atmosphere and the descriptions of the dilapidated stately home at the core of the mystery were superb. The plot was not the most original but the story telling carries the reader along.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable young adult read that also has universal appeal. The story starts on April Fool's Day, the day Eva is born but also the one when her mum dies, and then the story moves on to Eva as a teenager struggling to live a normal life in a crumbling old mansion with her grandfather. Eva has always had an affinity with the supernatural presences in her home but then she joins them ... how she enters the ghostly world is a puzzle she seeks to solve, as first one relation then another suffer physical attacks, and is the central story but there are other twists and turns to enjoy!
The ghostly encounters, the murder mystery elements and the traditional 'red herrings' all add to the pleasure of this read but regular murder readers will probably see the twists coming - overall an engaging heroine and enough thrills and spills for any teenage mystery fan.½

Eva Chance is sixteen years old and dead. She cannot remember how she died or who may have killed her, at first she doesn't even know she is dead. All she knows is that something is wrong with her family and as they gather at the mansion house Eva lives in with her Grandfather the ghosts of the house seem to be aggitated and out of control. And it's up to Eva to solve her own murder and save the remaining Chance family from an ancient curse.

This wasn't a bad mystery but I think it's one I would have enjoyed much more as a teenager myself. I did guess a major plot point and some of the story was a little shaky but there were also some very creepy moments that wouldn't be out of place in a real horror novel. The ducking stool (and what it contains) and the stain on the stairs with the Stalker are two such moments.

It's not one that I think I will be keen to read again and I don't think I will be rushing out to read her other books (although the preview of her next one in the back of this book did have another very creepy moment in it that has played on my mind, so perhaps I might give that one a chance if I find it in the bookshops) but I did enjoy it and it was a quick read.½

Review from Badelynge
Rhiannon Lassiter's Ghost of a Chance is aimed squarely at YA readers. Or others, of more mature years (that's me), who think the young shouldn't have all the fun where reading is concerned. It follows the attempts of lost spirit Evangeline Chase, haunting her crumbling stately home as she attempts to discover who killed her before the killer bumps off the rest of her family. Eva is an excellent character. All the best scenes belong to Eva. Her character works on many levels and holds the sympathy of the reader throughout. All the ghostly characters are fine, from the sad young ghost Sinje to the vengeful and lethal Witch and Stalker. The living characters are where the book fails though. They are for the most part half written and dull. Kyle is ok but his twin Kyra just doesn't work at all. There's a sort of half hearted anti-bullying theme which misfires completely, mostly due to the contradictory and unrealistic description and realisation of the girls character.
Despite all this I was quite enjoying this book until about three quarters through. Unfortunately, things start to flag at the end of the long and eventful ghost walk, which takes up most of the middle section of the story. The book loses its focus at this stage and starts to tread water. The narrative is further undermined by a sudden onset of random head jumping among the minor supporting characters.
The murder mystery won't baffle many readers and I expect even the most inept detectives among them will have had the killer tagged with a good proportion of the book still ahead. The shock ending is also not in the least unexpected, even if most of the telegraphing were removed it's unlikely anyone will reach the end without twigging well in advance.
It's a shame the atmospheric and well paced opening half of the book wasn't better served by its conclusion.
One other minor external quibble is the choice of title. A quick search on Goodreads reveals there are well over 60 books already called Ghost of a Chance and I dread to think how many are about ghosts who are called Chance. I'm all for a cheesy chapter title or two for a bit of fun but the book title drives the book's shelf identity and I would think something less well worn would serve it better.

This, if it’s not too contradictory a description for a ghost-cum-detective story, is a delightful novel, often deeply satisfying and always captivating. The narrative is set within the span of a month, from April Fool’s Day to May Eve, and features the ghost of young Eva, who has to act as a kind of detective to uncover the details of her own murder. Good detective stories include a cast of suspects and a shoal of red herrings, and we get plenty of both here. Ghost stories, by definition, must offer us a closetful of skeletons, spooks and denizens of the spirit world and there are enough here too for all the proverbial hairs on your neck. Particularly memorable are the maid Maggie, the Witch and, most chilling of all, the Stalker, who feeds off other ghosts.

What I like about this book is the various levels at which the intelligent reader can connect with it. The setting is the classic aristocratic pile and associated estate, but the author hints that she knows this conceit is open to parody by including references to Cluedo. Some of the younger characters are only dimly aware of Shakespeare, but Rhiannon Lassiter ensures that we take on board her nods to The Tempest, Hamlet and, above all, to King Lear as parallels in the plot. And I like her play on words where, for example, the young Evangeline’s name suggest that she is truly a messenger to the living concerning the dark happenings in the House.

Lassiter has also written that “Diana Wynne Jones will always be on my top ten” of favourite authors, and so I can’t help being reminded of a couple of examples from that writer’s work which must have had some influence on Ghost of a Chance. First, Jones’ The Time of the Ghost, partly based on incidents in the author’s childhood and which includes one character who experiences events as a ghost. Secondly, while the rather trite title must have suggested Eva Chance’s surname, word association drew me to the young Christopher Chant of Jones’ Chrestomanci books as a possible influence on Lassiter’s choice for Eva’s family name.

It’s probably churlish to say that there are the odd awkward explanatory passages, or that one or two characters, such as twins Kyle and Kyra and Eva’s cousin Felix, don’t always ring true as realistic and convincing individuals; I can’t excuse these by noting that this novel is ‘just’ written for young adults, because that’s unfair both to author and to the intended readership. However these caveats are more than outweighed by the instances of fine prose poetry and atmospheric descriptions, plus its overall readability and un-put-down-able qualities. An acid test for any reviewer is whether they would be willing to re-read a book for pleasure; in the case of Ghost of a Chance the answer is certainly in the affirmative.

http://wp.me/s2oNj1-chance

Much darker and more grown up than I was expecting! A proper ghost story set in modern times. Very enjoyable, a well managed spookiness, and well written.

Eva Chance is the surviving daughter of an unhappy mum, from a landed family now run out of funds. Brought up by her grandfather (with occasional visits from her aunts) in the country estate. At the occasion of the annual family gathering to discuss the forthcoming tourist season, Eva realises that people aren't just ignoring her, they can't actually see her, or hear her. Always a bit shy and retiring, she has now become a ghost. She quickly realises she is far from the only ghost in the mansion though. An early prank sees Eva sent to the cellars where the real trouble lies - one of the Chance's early ancestors has stored the relics of a witch dunking implements there. The bound remains of a real witch have cursed the house and family for generations. Eva decides maybe she can do something about it - but first she has to explore the supernatural world while maintaining a grip on the 'real' one, to prevent the Witch's plots to cause more misery to the remaining Chances.

The opening sections (and the rest of the book) that focuses on Eva is very well done. I initially expected some rehash of the popular paranormal based books, but this isn't - even though the basic themes could work that way. Instead Eva is very real both as a ghost and as a human. Where I felt the book could do with more work (or editing) is in the other characters. Especially when the text jumps (distractingly) to their POV. Given Eva's sense of surprise at becoming incorporeal, the remaining humans seem to take the appearance of ghosts remarkably calmly. There is nothing in the build-up explaining that ghosts are a normal part of their world, but they hardly seem shocked by it - although a few do disbelieve at first. It is also quite annoying when the POV switches around a lot. Any empathy you've built up for a character is lost, and the new characters don't get sufficiency of writing devoted to them for them to become any more than obvious cutouts. Some of the interaction between brother and sister was well done, but a lot remained somewhat wooden.

As with all such tales the ending is one of the key components to making an enjoyable book. Here too, it was good, but less than perfect. Although the identity of the culprit was well maintained for a while it did become guessable towards the latter third of the book. The "big twist" was very obvious, and I was only curious to see how the author managed it, not whether it was going to happen. The manifold plus sides of the story are the general atmosphere and world set-up. I liked the variety of ghosts and their abilities and powers. I liked Eva's determination and her motivation for it. The general continuity held together well, which can be very tricky to do, and quickly spoils a story when it goes wrong.

Overall - recommended, worth reading to anyone who enjoys ghosts stories.

Last Chance...
'You know that girl, the one in my class? The one that disappeared. She lived here.'
Lost Chance...
You're dead, Eva Chance. You died and nobody noticed. You died and nobody cared.'
No More Chances Left...
They said it was suicide, but Eva knows she was murdered. Now she inhabits a sinister spirit world along with the tortured and malevolent ghosts of her ancestral home. Solving the crime could end her existence - but if the killer isn't found how many more will die?

I liked this book - I didn't love it. Instead of Eva getting off her butt and actually trying to find out why she died, she just kinda wanders around the house and occasionally writes her name on things. The description of Kyra by Eva and Kyra's twin brother, Kyle, doesn't actually seem to fit. She's described as one of those vain girls who wears miniskirts and screams at everything - in reality, she's a strong minded girl who does well in her classes and wants to gain a better life for herself.
There are a lot of characters in this book, easily over twenty. It's difficult not to remember them all though as this book drags. Really drags. If you manage to drag yourself to page 200 (yes, really), then that's where the action really kicks off and doesn't stop for another 80 pages, dulls for another 50 then drags you through it all over again. The action was definitely worth it though.
Plot wise, can't say too much without ruining the story, all I will say is that I found it a tad predictable. When the murderer was finally revealed I was unsurprised. Also the great big plot twist you'd be expecting as soon as you pick up the book was good, but again, predictable.
One nice thing I learnt from the acknowledgements is the Rhiannon is actually Mary Hoffman's daughter (Stravaganza?). Yup.

4/5