Review – A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb (2/5 stars)

I read this book because Amazon kept recommending it to me and because the premise sounded interesting.

The premise of the book is that Helen has been a ghost for 130 years; she remembers little more of her past than her name, how long ago she died, and the age at which she died. She also quickly discovered that she needs to cleave onto a host in order to avoid horrible searing pain. Yet she has not figured out how to continue on her journey to heaven beyond. Things all change when she is “seen” by another student in her host’s classroom.

I didn’t really like this book much. It was too much of a romance for me. I like my books with a little romance but also some action and plot. Initially it seemed like a really interesting idea for a story. It just degraded into too much romance. The two families involved were interesting but it seemed a bit too forced. I mean how would you get two characters involved with such polar opposite families? It was a bit too deliberate.

I was also both disappointed and interested in the ending. The book ended exactly how I expected a book about a ghost to end; there were no surprises. On the other hand it was nice to find out what had happened to Helen. This book was just too boring and predictable for my tastes; the quality of the writing was okay but I don’t feel it offset the negatives of the book.

I read this book on the airplane; I don’t think I would have finished it if I had been at home. I definitely will not read it again and it is in the “books to sell” pile on my desk at home.

Here is a link to the book on Amazon: