Ghost Medicine
Written by Andrew Smith
Published by Feiwel and Friends
ISBN10: 0312375573
ISBN13: 9780312375577
Reviewed by Lauren Lapinski
Ah, the coming-of-age story. It is a tale often told of dealing with situations of real life and how they help us grow up and become more mature while we are teenagers. Such is the case of “Ghost Medicine”. It is the story of a young boy dealing with the recent loss of his mother and how his life and mentality are forever affect by this event.
This book, if anything else, is descriptive; very, very, very descriptive. So much so that it takes forever to actually get back to the story in general. On and on were descriptions of mountains and valleys and weather and nightmares, but there was lack of the actual plot itself. The narration is misleading from the get go, the reader being tricked into thinking the main character is going out for a brisk ride for the day and then doing a complete turn around to see that the main character is actually running away from home.
It also managed to take scenes or lines that might have otherwise have been interesting or intense and actually make them boring. The story itself also continues to drag on so much so to the point where your actually happy when a chapter actually comes to a conclusion, but depressed because another chapter is before you and you know it will just continue to drag forward. Even for those who readers to enjoy a more slow paced story, the pacing of this book actually would destroy any and all interest one might have of continuing onward with it.