The Good Ghouls' Guide to Getting Even by Julie Kenner
Trademark humor but lacking some sense...
Julie Kenner's brand of humor is clear throughout the book, and she's got teenage angst and dialogue down pat (which is true of her Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series as well). Which would seem to make this a shoo-in for at least 4 stars. On the other, though many parts of this book made me laugh, others didn't make sense to me.
**SOME SPOILERS BELOW**
For example, even though the teen protagonist, Beth, herself admits she wasn't quite thinking when she got suckered by Stephen Mills and his pals, there are many instances when she seemed incredibly stupid. All the signs were there that things weren't what they seemed to be when the Queen Bitches invited her to join their squad, but those were discarded. And what bad guy (or good guy for that matter) wouldn't have a product tested before use, esp if it meant a gruesome death if the product didn't work? That is, blind faith probably wouldn't happen. That should have occurred to Beth early on... why would she think that Stephen would use the cream without having someone else test it... which would have been bad news for Beth. Then, when Nelson was unconscious in the gym, that would've been a good time to take care of him, but the thought never occurred to her and she was left with a witness who disappeared. There are several instances of commonsensical things like that that just slipped.
Someone also needs to do some fact-checking. Regardless of whether Beth's dad is a doctor or not, and whether or not Beth has a part-time job in a hospital lab, all blood products in a hospital blood bank are tightly regulated. There's a chronic blood shortage in the USA and elsewhere, each unit of blood is labeled and entered into a database, and whenever the units are removed from the blood bank, they have to be signed out with various forms. Maybe 1 unit of blood (unlikely, but let's be generous; maybe the blood is unusable for whatever reason) could be given out for a student project but several? A dozen?
A "routine" operation can require 6 units of blood or more. Think of how many units would be needed for a trauma patient or a major surgery. No hospital can spare so many units for non-patient care, much less a purported project. Questions would definitely be asked.
Regarding vampires and college. NYU was mentioned. Well, like so many universities, NYU does offer night classes. While it's not the way many students would like to attend college, the opportunity is there. I admit I don't know what reasonable excuse a student like Beth who's going to graduate high school (as opposed to a working adult or one with family) could give for wanting to attend night class rather than regular day classes, but I'm surprised that that option isn't even raised.
There were also loose ends that may have been deliberately left out and might be addressed in the sequel, one of which involved college boys Kevin and his brother. Who are they really and how did they know what was going on at Beth's school and the club where Beth first meets him? The same with Clayton and his grandfather. How did they know about vampires, etc?
**SOME SPOILERS ABOVE**
Things such as the above made what should have been an easy, fun read less smooth than they could have been. I'll be checking out the sequel, Good Ghouls Do, from the library.
See MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi's Jennifer Scales series as an example of humorous young adult books that work (Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace, Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light, The Silver Moon Elm).
My recommendations for other great young adult books (albeit they're darker tales) are Holly Black's A Modern Faerie Tale series (Tithe, Ironside, Valiant), Herbie Brennan's The Faerie Wars Chronicles (Faerie Wars, The Purple Emperor, Ruler of the Realm, and the upcoming Faerie Lord), Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series (Glass Houses, The Dead Girls' Dance, and the forthcoming Midnight Alley), and Gena Showalter's Teen Alien Huntress series (Red Handed, Blacklisted).
Link
Julie Kenner's brand of humor is clear throughout the book, and she's got teenage angst and dialogue down pat (which is true of her Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series as well). Which would seem to make this a shoo-in for at least 4 stars. On the other, though many parts of this book made me laugh, others didn't make sense to me.
**SOME SPOILERS BELOW**
For example, even though the teen protagonist, Beth, herself admits she wasn't quite thinking when she got suckered by Stephen Mills and his pals, there are many instances when she seemed incredibly stupid. All the signs were there that things weren't what they seemed to be when the Queen Bitches invited her to join their squad, but those were discarded. And what bad guy (or good guy for that matter) wouldn't have a product tested before use, esp if it meant a gruesome death if the product didn't work? That is, blind faith probably wouldn't happen. That should have occurred to Beth early on... why would she think that Stephen would use the cream without having someone else test it... which would have been bad news for Beth. Then, when Nelson was unconscious in the gym, that would've been a good time to take care of him, but the thought never occurred to her and she was left with a witness who disappeared. There are several instances of commonsensical things like that that just slipped.
Someone also needs to do some fact-checking. Regardless of whether Beth's dad is a doctor or not, and whether or not Beth has a part-time job in a hospital lab, all blood products in a hospital blood bank are tightly regulated. There's a chronic blood shortage in the USA and elsewhere, each unit of blood is labeled and entered into a database, and whenever the units are removed from the blood bank, they have to be signed out with various forms. Maybe 1 unit of blood (unlikely, but let's be generous; maybe the blood is unusable for whatever reason) could be given out for a student project but several? A dozen?
A "routine" operation can require 6 units of blood or more. Think of how many units would be needed for a trauma patient or a major surgery. No hospital can spare so many units for non-patient care, much less a purported project. Questions would definitely be asked.
Regarding vampires and college. NYU was mentioned. Well, like so many universities, NYU does offer night classes. While it's not the way many students would like to attend college, the opportunity is there. I admit I don't know what reasonable excuse a student like Beth who's going to graduate high school (as opposed to a working adult or one with family) could give for wanting to attend night class rather than regular day classes, but I'm surprised that that option isn't even raised.
There were also loose ends that may have been deliberately left out and might be addressed in the sequel, one of which involved college boys Kevin and his brother. Who are they really and how did they know what was going on at Beth's school and the club where Beth first meets him? The same with Clayton and his grandfather. How did they know about vampires, etc?
**SOME SPOILERS ABOVE**
Things such as the above made what should have been an easy, fun read less smooth than they could have been. I'll be checking out the sequel, Good Ghouls Do, from the library.
See MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi's Jennifer Scales series as an example of humorous young adult books that work (Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace, Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light, The Silver Moon Elm).
My recommendations for other great young adult books (albeit they're darker tales) are Holly Black's A Modern Faerie Tale series (Tithe, Ironside, Valiant), Herbie Brennan's The Faerie Wars Chronicles (Faerie Wars, The Purple Emperor, Ruler of the Realm, and the upcoming Faerie Lord), Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series (Glass Houses, The Dead Girls' Dance, and the forthcoming Midnight Alley), and Gena Showalter's Teen Alien Huntress series (Red Handed, Blacklisted).
posted by Cheshire Cat @ 7/29/2007 09:52:00 pm
2 Commas spliced
2 Comments:
By the Book Reviews just did a full review of "Good Ghouls Do." Check it out at http://teenscenemag.com/bythebook/good-ghouls-do/
Thanks muchly, Chad. :-)
I hope I will find "Good Ghouls Do" an improvement over the first book.
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