review of raina telgemeir's graphic novle ghosts

a while ago, the library was doing free book giveaways of dupes they don't need. so i picked this up bc it looked competent. after a quick read i will say: this book is so so so so mid. i just read through it all in 45 minutes or so, through out 90% of the book, the main character, cat, was very unlikable. through out the whole book, she has this irrational fear of ghosts. at first its not explained. she just hates them for some reason. like she is utterly petrified by the thought of their existence for some reason. she is immature and dismissive of the towns history entirely in the beginning, but this only worsens when her younger sister, the most likeable character in the book, almost dies when meeting a ghost. this might have given cat some reason behind why she hates ghosts. but her desire to be a protecting and caring older sister feels honestly out of place when coupled with her immaturity and negativity to Carlos. Carlos spends most of the book trying to apologize for something he has been blamed for but isn't actually responsible for. reminds me of myself trying to apologize to my toxic ex after he ghosted me for no reason. and just like what my ex did to me, cat basically spits on his attempts of reconciliation and gets randomly pissed off by his genuine concern for what happened. it doesn't help that her younger sister (the one who almost dies to an accident involving her cystic fibrosis and cats own irresponsibility) is on good terms with Carlos!!!! that's right! cat is the only one with a thing against Carlos. then there's something about her friends, idk. ones asian and ones black, the asian one has some steriotypical name seo huen or something like that. pretty much your run of the mill tokenism diversity that's been making its resurgence recently. if you have a problem with what i am saying about this, i have a whole essay i wrote on why this form of diversity is toxic and tokenism, but hey its fine, whatever, that's a different issue.

speaking of representation, i did enjoy the immersiveness of Hispanic culture, thought i thought it was a little forced at times. it is defiantly a necessary part of the story and plays important roles other than representation so its all good n my books. however, the whole book (and many books like it) have a big issue with show dont tell. which is ironic considering its a GRAPHIC novel. it pissed me off in the beginning and pissed me off to the end. the author couldnt just trust that i have eyes and a functioning brain. everything had to be doubled down with redundant dialogue. take for instance on page 75, it has been said like twice up to this point that ghosts like fog. so you see them walking through a foggy forest. yet carlos says "this is GREAT ghost-chasing weather" LIKE I KNOW CARLOS SHUT UP I UNDERSTAND THE MECHANICS OF YOUR WEIRD GHOST UNIVERSE. again, on 93, we see carlos switching to spanish to talk to the ghosts and they seem fond of this. but carlos still comes in clutch with the "most of the people buried here were from mexico, so they like it when you speak spanish to them" THANKS CARLOS VERY COOL!

all in all this is a kids book. but its not gonna stop me from criticizing it. im giving this a 4/10. not the worst not the best, but bellow average. mostly because of cat. fuck cat all my homies hate cat.