Yzabel / April 30, 2014

A Gift of Ghosts by Sarah Wynde

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Akira Malone believes in the scientific method, evolution, and Einstein’s theory of relativity. And ghosts.

All the logic and reason in the world can’t protect her from the truth-she can see and communicate with spirits. But Akira is sure that her ability is just a genetic quirk and the ghosts she encounters simply leftover electromagnetic energy. Dangerous electromagnetic energy.

Zane Latimer believes in telepathy, precognition, auras, and that playing Halo with your employees is an excellent management technique. He also thinks that maybe, just maybe, Akira can help his family get in touch with their lost loved ones.

But will Akira ever be able to face her fears and accept her gift? Or will Zane’s relatives be trapped between life and death forever?

Review:

[I got a free copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

This was a quick and light read, and I mostly appreciated it. Not the best book I’ve read this year, but definitely enjoyable.

I liked its take on ghosts, how they behaved, the way they were bound to places that had been important to them in life or at the moment of their death. Their world wasn’t in black and white only: the “bad” ghosts, though definitely dangerous, aren’t totally unredeemable, and aren’t intrisically bad either; conversely, a “safe” ghost could turn into a dangerous one just as well if overwhelmed with grief. A lot seemed to be about balance, about regrets left behind, but it wasn’t so simple as “just get rid of your regrets and you’ll find the white light that’ll help you move on.” This predicament (for both the ghosts and Akira, who had her share of bad experiences with people she had tried to help) was interesting, and left room to various interpretations on the reader’s part. Being able to see ghosts doesn’t mean Akira can “save” them, and it explained her attitude on the matter. For instance, she doesn’t like advertising her ability because then she’s asked to bring closure to the ghosts’ relatives; yet simply relaying said ghosts’ messages doesn’t ensure their family will feel better, nor that the dead will manage to move on.

Those plots with the ghosts may or may not be seen as a problem. In a way, the story felt a little disjointed, in that those subplots were of the slice-of-life (pardon the pun) kind and didn’t seem to serve a larger purpose at first. However, in the end, they were important to understand Akira’s views, played a part in how relationships developed, and I think they also helped shape the ending. (I liked the twist with Henry, by the way.)

The writing itself was pleasant. Good formatting and editing, no weird sentence structures (if there were any, they really didn’t strike me). There was one sex scene that might seem weird at first, because the flirting/foreplay part involved a lot of references to physics; I think it depends on the reader here. I liked it, and I guess my inner geek just found it sexy—much better than the usual purple prose I’ve seen in too many depictions of romance/erotica—but I can also see how it wouldn’t work for other people.

The two things I liked the less were:

1) The setting. We have a small Florida town seemingly full of psychics, with Zane’s family members also having their share of powers, but we don’t see them that much. It would’ve been interesting to have a better glimpse into the life of Tassamara as a whole.

2) The characters were somewhat lackluster (though some got better later in the book). I think I liked the ghosts characters (Dillon and Rose mostly) better than the human ones. Akira especially struck me as a little too passive: accepting a job she didn’t know that much about for starters, not reacting that much to situations that should’ve prompted a more heated answer… I got a better feeling of her later on, but not at first.

In general, this novel had its faults, but as far as I’m concerned, the ghost-related plots made up for them.