The Ghosts of Ashbury High

by Jaclyn Moriarty

Student essays, scholarship committee members' notes, and other writings reveal interactions between a group of modern-day students at an exclusive New South Wales high school and their strange connection to a young Irishman transported to Australia in the early 1800s.

• ISBN10: 0545069726
• ISBN13: 9780545069724
• Publish Date: 1 June 2010 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Arthur A. Levine Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 480
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

This is the only book in the series that I'd only read once, and I didn't really remember anything from it except that there were two weird newcomers to Ashbury, something about someone living in the ceiling, lightning, and that there was a historical story intertwined with the main plot.

I love this series and I was glad to get back to Cassie, Emily, and Lydia - and to have characters from earlier books like Bindy, Toby, Astrid, Saxon, and Briony appear. It's definitely my least favourite of the series, though.

I think the plausibility of the whole thing is an issue for me. First of all, the exam format does not work for me. I just don't think people would write so much personal information in an exam, or that the stories they tell would so perfectly intersect. I mean, it's a clever idea, and it works if you don't think about it too much, but it does definitely require some suspension of disbelief. Also, the whole thing with Amelia going back in time is cool, and totally would have worked if this were a standalone book, but it's so far from the rest of the series that I just wasn't into it.

That said, there's more of the same humour, engaging writing style, distinct POVs, and believable character development that makes this series so great. It's a really nice ending to the series, just not quite as strong as the others.

[rakesandrogues]

I'm a huge fan of Jaclyn Moriarty's The Year of Secret Assignments, so I was very excited to have snagged a copy of The Ghosts of Ashbury High at internship. I was surprised on how big the book was, but I was determined to read it anyways. Length usually does not faze me.

I was definitely not used to Moriarty's style of writing. It's been a while since I read The Year of Secret Assignments, so I was not prepared for it. Around 200 pages in, I confess that I skipped to the end at around page 400 because I just couldn't take it anymore. I could not stand that the story kept back-tracking. While it is fun and interesting to read the story in different perspectives, learning little things with each new story, the story dragged for me. I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again, and it started to get really bothersome. I was so close to quitting, but in the end, I felt that I would feel guilty if I didn't. So I picked the book back up and kept reading.

Did it get better? I think so. I got used to the narrative (though I still skimmed the meeting minutes) and I was curious to see how the story would get to the ending. I found that I really did love reading about Lydia and Seb and even the new characters of Amelia and Riley. The ghosts of Ashbury did not interest me at all, however. The ghosts are a big part of the plot which is probably why I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Honestly, if I had quit reading this book at 200 pages in, I would have given this book a rating of 2 stars. I'm glad that I did finish reading it though. I don't feel guilty for abandoning a book, and it makes me feel better writing a review knowing how the book gets to the end. Still, I feel that The Ghosts of Ashbury High does not live up to The Year of Secret Assignments. It's disappointing, but I have to remember that Secret Assignments was just that good.