City of Ghosts (V.E.Schwab)

Surprise! I’m back with a V.E.Schwab review! For those of you who are new, or just missed this fact, I absolutely love V.E.Schwab – she is one of the absolute best authors I have read and I will read pretty much anything of hers, including graphic novels (but I’m waiting till Christmas for Steel Prince #1).

Title: City of Ghosts
Author: V.E.Schwab
Format: Paperback (library)
Pages: 272

City of Ghosts is a middle-grade novel (so, at the younger end of the YA spectrum) and it’s about a girl who sees ghosts and a trip to haunted Edinburgh with her ghost hunter parents. It’s short, Cassie’s best friend is a ghost, and she can step across into an “in-between” world. Her parent’s are the definition of opposites attract, and they play on this for their supernatural book series/tv show about supernatural stuff – dad pulls together the history and mum tells pretty epic stories apparently.

Look, it’s a book designed for a 12 year old – or near enough middle-grade age. I only read it because Victoria Schwab is a genius when it comes to creepy world building and I love her writing. And the world building was a little creepy, but the intense characterisation was a little less than in ADSOM ect, what with this being for young teens rather than no-longer-teens (sob). I felt  that the plot little rushed, but it’s also a story for children and so allowances must be made for shorter attention spans.

As far as stories go, it was entertaining, and not too childish. It embraces death (I mean, come on, it’s a story about ghosts!) and there is a cat, and ghostly bestie and if nothing else, I enjoyed it for it’s simple spookiness. I read this a week or two late for Halloween, but it would have been a good read-aloud for younger ones.

Some cracking comments in this book – my absolute favourite quotes are these two here!

“Embrace your strange, dear daughter. Where’s the fun in being normal?”

“She bounces off with all the enthusiasm of someone rushing towards cake, not corpses.”

If you like V.E.Schwab, you’re probably already going to read this. It’s fun, and it is an easy read. I read it in an hour or two sat in a coffee shop. It’s not complex, but it has been set up nicely for Cassidy Blake’s transfer to (If V’s twitter is to be believed) Paris. When I was going back to the library, I stopped to take photos of the book with the university buildings because ghostly gothic aesthetic… 🙂

I can’t decide if I fancy dragons or romance next, either way, I’m listening to Stephen Fry’s Mythos on audiobook and it is amazing you need to listen. I still have about 9 hours before I can review though.

Bea