e-Audio, 08:38:39
Narrated by: Vico Ortiz
Release Date: October 1, 2024
Published by: Dreamscape Media
Read from: October 2-3, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received an e-ALC from Netgalley and the publisher. This did nothing to influence my review)
Content Warning: Grief, Death, Medical Content, Death of a Parent, Child Death, Car Accident, Murder
For Readers Interested In: Family Diversity (Father Passed), Sparkly Covers, 2sLGBTQ+, MG, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Latinx), Paranormal, Own VoicesJasmine Garza has a a ghost has been following her for years, ever since her Papi died. Not that Mami will admit anything supernatural is going on. But even the ghost she won’t acknowledge makes real trouble, so Jasmine and her mami are moving (again) to a new apartment in East Hollywood. This time Jasmine is committed to living a normal life with normal friends.
Enter: Bea Veracruz and Jorge Barrera. They’re the only two members of Jasmine’s middle school’s Gay Straight Alliance and they’re already obsessed with all things supernatural. Bea wants to prove herself to her paranormal investigator parents and Jorge is determined to overcome his fear of the beyond. And when Jasmine confesses she’s been tormented by a ghost for years, they not only believe her, they’re thrilled!
Together they set out to prove that Jasmine’s not just acting out after her father’s death–ghosts are real and Jasmine is haunted. But not everyone agrees how to deal with the departed. As Jasmine’s hauntings increase in intensity, her resentment builds. Why is her Mami so secretive about her past? Why is she the center of such a terrible vortex of supernatural activity? And why hasn’t her Papi ever reached out to her since he passed?
In order to face her ghosts—both internal and external—Jasmine must come to terms with her own history.
*MY THOUGHTS*
To be honest, this is my first book by Oshiro. I wasn’t a huge fan of his debut, so I just kept pushing all his other books back. But now at the very LEAST I’m going back to read all his MG because this was spectacular.
Ok so I’m going to be honest again…. I knew where this was going as soon as this story started, but I was enjoying it so much I didn’t care in the slightest. (And also I was reading with my adult brain and not my MG brain lol I doubt my kids that I’m buying this for would have realized it.) This was SO GOOD. It had just the right amount of paranormal activity to keep me entertained, but also had some real life instances mixed in as well. It was balanced pretty perfectly.
The characters were what made this story. From Jasmine, to her ghosts, to her friends. they all played a very important role in this story, even if you can’t tell that from the beginning. Even her Mami had a huge secret that made me sit up and say, “HUH!?” out loud. Jasmine’s besties were another reason I enjoyed this so much. They were so guarded, but let her in all the same. That worried me because I thought they were hiding something that was going to hurt her, but luckily it wasn’t. They all had something in common. And it was sad, but that was what brought them together. (Also Bea’s parents are terrible people. Just wanted to say that lol)
The main thing I liked about this…. The scary bits were actually scary! As someone who reads MG horror all the time, it’s not usually scary. So imagine my surprise when i got to this one and was actually pretty spooked by the way the ghosts appeared to Jasmine and the things they were doing. That may seem like a lot, but looking at feedback from branches, my tweens love things like this. I’m so excited for them to read more!
The plot of this was pretty basic, but it had me glued to my AirPods. I hated that it felt like they were using her tho. Like they realized a while before she did that things were amplified when she was around, so they kept inviting her to stuff. Then they would apologize just to do it all over again. That was annoying. I felt really bad for her. I do wish there had been more of a plot twist tho because it did start getting predictable.
Until we got to the end. It was so abrupt. I wanted to at least see how she really interacted with her first thing after this whole ordeal. But they just cut it off. Maybe it was because they wanted to make sure we have room for a sequel, which in that case, I’ll allow it lol I want to see more of this. I need to see how the GSA or Gay Supernatural Alliance lives up to things now that they have the potential for a real business.
This was a fun one! I really hope this is the start to a series! I want to see how they interact with these and how they’re going to turn this into a business. Because tweens talking to ghosts that should have moved on? As we’ve seen in this one…. What could possibly go wrong?!
Overall, I give this
