The Ghosts of Ashbury High

by Jaclyn Moriarty

[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.