Ghost was an amazing book and I don’t know why I haven’t read it sooner. When I find a good book and cannot for the life of me put it away until I’ve finished reading the entire thing. Ghost is definitely one of those books. I like to think about reading as phases in my life because that’s exactly how I treat it. When I find good books I’m completely obsessed and I won’t stop reading until it’s done. This phase can randomly occur at any given moment; the next minute or the next year… maybe 3 years. I think I’m about to watch my reading phase Begin Again (I have been getting a lot of recommendations from some of my old friends).
Ghost is about this 13 year old 8th grader who has a very dark past about his father. His father started drinking and one day he tried shooting ghost and his mother. Not just once, like reloading and trying to shoot them again. Ghost and his mother ran and made it out alive (without getting shot). Life has been hard for both of them since then and they live (and lived) on Glass Manor (which is where everyone who is financially struggling ends up making it the poorest part of town). For context because I think it’s important, Ghost is not Ghost’s real name, it is a self given nickname that he goes by because he feels like no one notices him like a ghost (he gets bullied quite a bit and gets in trouble often) and also because he runs so fast that he is like a ghost disappearing into the darkness of the night. His full name is Castle Cranshaw.
I got two quotes from this book that I would like to share. The first one is irrelevant to the actual story itself and the other basically represents the entire thing.
I got a scream inside. And I could tell Red did too. He was a white boy with red hair who everyone was friends with mainly because people were scared that he was crazy and it’s better to be one crazy’s good side. Jessica Grant said her mother said the only reason people have red hair is because they’re red on the inside. Red like violent. But I got black hair, so does that mean I’m black on the inside?
Red is one of the only two school friends Ghost has. He gets bullied a lot especially by this kid named Brandon Simmons. This particular day Ghost has enough after Brandon threw chicken wings at him. Ghost picked up a tray and whacked him on the head. Brandon fell backwards, but Ghost kept it coming. I was cheering and rooting for Ghost the entire time. He definitely one. I too had to deal with many douche bags and I wish I had enough confidence to do what Ghost did.
One last quote (I know I wrote a lot, but I loved this book).
He faced me again, looking straight in my eyes. “Show you that you can’t run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be.”
This is what his track coach responded with when Ghost asked what he thinks running can do for him. He had to let that sink in for a while…. I LOVE THIS BOOK WITH MY WHOLE HEART!!!