Journal Entry 1 by Kyrissaean from Littleton, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, January 19, 2008

A Certain Slant of Light is a different slant on a ghost story, and I really enjoyed watching what the author did with it. The two main characters are ghosts looking in on the living world, at first experiencing it without being noticed and later going unnoticed for what they really are. The prose is lovely and elegant, the story emotional, and once I got into this it was hard to stop listening. The story felt fully fleshed out, and yet I was left wanting a bit more at the end. That's probably a mark of a great book but for myself I would have prefered just a little bit more info in a couple areas, but overall this was a great listen!

This is very much a love story, so be warned in advance to expect a bit of mush. I found that part of the plot a bit rushed, not in terms of pacing but for the characters, and there were several times I found myself aghast at the lack of foresight shown by the main characters in some ways. Let's just say that not all ghosts haunt Girl Scout meetings, where we were taught to tread through the forest so as to leave as little damage as possible! That's a thought that was with me pretty much throughout the whole book!

This is listed as a young adult novel, but it's one of the most adult ones I've come across and I wouldn't think of limiting this to a teenage audience. This is not at all a kiddie story. There's a good bit of sexual content, which, although never crude, might be something for which parents might want to prescreen for younger teens.

The narrator is just right for the part. She perfectly captures the hushed urgency of the gentle-souled Helen, a ghost desperate to communicate yet terrified of notice.



From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up–Laura Whitcomb's compellingly complicated story (Graphix, 2005) combines dead spirits, existential angst, teens in modern families inhabiting both ends of the neglected/overprotected spectrum, unprotected teen sex, accusations of misconduct against a teacher, and requited love. Helen, who died as a young woman in the mid-19th century, has not been able to attain her final rest. Across the years, she has attached her invisible self to one living host after another, staying by each one's side so as to maintain enough life force to work through whatever happened at her death—and in her own life—that won't allow her to go peacefully. The hosts have no conscious sense of her presence—she does them no harm—and Helen moves on to a new host when her current one dies. In the 21st century, she's been attached to a high school English teacher. Helen realizes that a student in one of the classes sees her quite clearly. In fact, the contemporary student, Billy, is actually a young man named James who, like Helen, died but has gone a step beyond haunting a living host to inhabiting the living body of one. Lauren Molina's performance of this ghost story is appropriately breathy, although some of the characters—including James—sound too young because of her high voice. The denouement here is exciting and unexpected, giving listeners much to ponder and discuss: Are such hauntings plausible? How responsible are overly protective parents for poor decisions their teens make? When is circumstantial evidence really enough for anyone to draw absolutely certain conclusions?