Review – The Swallow: A Ghost Story by Charis Cotter (3.5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Tundra
Release Date: September 9th 2014
ISBN-13: 9781770495913
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: From Publisher for Review
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
This was a decent middle grade ghost story with a twist. While there wasn’t anything really wrong with the book, I didn’t really find it all that compelling either.
The story is told from two different perspectives. The first POV is that of Polly who is a young girl who lives with a big family, most of which are foster kids. Polly is obsessed with ghosts and constantly feels like her parents have forgotten her and diverted their love and attention to her foster siblings. The second POV is that of Rose. Rose lives next door to Polly and is very ghostlike. Everyone ignores her, including her parents who are always working and too busy for her. And Rose can see ghosts. Polly is convinced that Rose is a ghost, Rose is unsure. The two set out to solve this mystery and become friends in the process.
This is a middle grade ghost story about family and friends. The story mainly revolves around the mystery of why Rose can see ghosts and if Rose is actually a ghost. However a lot of time is also spent on the friendship the two develop and on interactions within their family.
There’s a big twist towards the end of the story, which was fairly predictable. Additionally the story wasn’t all that exciting. There is a mystery to be solved and a paranormal element (Rose seeing ghosts), but it’s really not a scary story. It’s more the story of two girls becoming friends and trying to deal with family issues.
Overall this was an okay read and a fairly quick read. I honestly don’t have a ton to say about this book. It wasn’t especially compelling but it wasn’t a bad read either. I would tentatively recommend if you enjoy ghost stories that are more about friendship and growing up than about anything scary.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
