Anya's Ghost

Anya's Ghost
Vera Brosgol
221 pages
Publisher: First Second
Source: library
★★☆☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Anya's Ghost is a graphic novel and I normally don't read graphic novels.  I think this was the second one I ever read, after the Twilight graphic novel, which I only read because I got it for a dollar at Borders and it was Twilight related.  Anyhoo, I saw a good review of this and it was at the library, so I just picked it up on a whim to read.  I read it in under two hours all while being distracted by the Friends marathon on Nick at Nite.

Anya is a Russian immigrant who is struggling with self-esteem issues and a lack of friends.  One day she accidentally falls into a big hole where she meets a ghost, who claims to have been murdered.  The ghost follows her out of the hole and starts following Anya around, but soon Anya discovers there's something else going on with this ghost...

I liked the plot twist where we learn who the ghost really is and I thought the book had some good morals about being different and getting through high school, though I didn't care for the glorification of smoking the book seemed to present.  Also, there was zero character development and I thought Anya's best friend was a boy until about halfway through the book.  Whoops.  This book did not cure me of my distaste for graphic novels.  I don't understand their appeal.