Representation: Black character
Trigger warnings: Disappearance and death of a cat, racism, slavery and abuse mentioned, blood depiction, emesis, child neglect, depression
Score: Six points out of ten.
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I saw Lost Soul, Be at Peace, hiding on a library shelf, so I wanted to read it. Soon enough, I picked it up and read it, but when I finished the novel, I realised a few aspects of the book. First, it was part of a series, but unfortunately, the library didn't have the first instalment, Hono[u]r Girl. However, at its best, Lost Soul, Be at Peace was disorienting--the text was underwhelming at worst.

It starts with the first person I see, Maggie Thrash, living in a mansion a year and a half after an event I don't know much of. She recounts her life thus far as uneventful and even depressing as she isn't doing too well in 11th grade, and to top everything off, her cat disappeared. Maggie spends the opening pages searching for that feline when she stumbles across another ghostly character, Tommy. I can understand why Maggie is depressed because her parents neglect her, but she also talks about how her coming out has gone unnoticed, which rubbed me the wrong way. It's like she wants attention from that. I couldn't connect or relate to any of the characters, and the story does not make an outstanding memoir because it's too monotonous. The conclusion is a high note, but petered out Lost Soul, Be at Peace. I don't know anyone who has Hono[u]r Girl yet, so I'll never know what happened there. ( )

diverse teen graphic (fictionalized memoir, main character is lesbian in high school but plot is centered more around the ghost and his background). ( )

Interesting continuation of Honor Girl, but you don't have to have read the first book as this is not about Maggie being gay, it is about her family. Maggie's cat goes missing and coincides with the death of her father's mother. At the same time she dreams she is in a house that looks like hers but isn't and meets up with a spirit called Tommy. Together Maggie ( and Tommy) try to work out where Tommy has come from, what has happened to the cat and why Maggie's father fell out so badly with his family - what drove him to be a supreme court judge and to be so taciturn to say the least. Hovering in the background of all this is Maggie coming to terms with her newfound sexuality while being attracted to a girl in her interpretive dance class.
An engaging story foremost about family and what makes us who we are. ( )

Primitive colored pencils capture the insecurity of teenage life. ( )

Literary merit: ok
Characterization: ok
Recommend: no
Level: High School

Lost Soul, Be at Peace by Maggie Thrash

I did not like this book very much. It was a graphic memoir. The images did not appeal to me and the story was weird.

The story starts with Maggie searching for her cat. The cat goes missing in her huge house. Her parents are distant and her brother just moved out. She feels very alone besides her cat. While searching for the cat she finds a ghost. The ghost is unhelpful. Maggie keeps looking for her cat and keeps talking to the ghost. Maggie is struggling with depression and believes she is a lesbian. This causes tension with her parents. She finally spends time with her father and finds out that the ghost she has been hanging out with is the ghost of her father’s youth. She never finds her cat and the relationship with her parents is still estranged. However, she did form a relationship with another girl from school that promises to be romantic. The story ends with a strange dance sequence and an image of the lost cat.

I did like the interpretation of her father’s youth but other than that, I did not enjoy the book. ( )