GIVE UP THE GHOST by Megan Crewe

Cass McKenna much prefers ghosts over “breathers.” Ghosts are uncomplicated and dependable, and they know the dirt on everybody…and Cass loves dirt. She’s on a mission to expose the dirty secrets of the poseurs in her school.
But when the vice president of the student council discovers her secret, Cass’s whole scheme hangs in the balance. Tim wants her to help him contact his recently deceased mother, and Cass reluctantly agrees.
As Cass becomes increasingly entwined in Tim’s life, she’s surprised to realize he’s not so bad—and he needs help more desperately than anyone else suspects. Maybe it’s time to give the living another chance…

    I really wanted to like this book, and I did, just not as much as I hoped I would. The concept was cool, but I felt like the paranormal aspect of the story took a backseat to the relationships between the characters. Usually I wouldn't have a problem with that, but I wasn't that enchanted by the characters' personalities. Cass was way too obsessed with cracking through the poseurs perfect veneers. She had great motive, but the author didn't do a very good job at pulling it off. Tim was your average depressed teenager who also happens to be an alcoholic, completely stereotypical, which drives me nuts. There was some depth in Give Up the Ghost, but not much, and not nearly enough to help pull the odd storyline together. I felt like the storyline could have been squeezed into a novella; it was too simple to be considered a full-out novel. I feel really bad ranting about how much I didn't like this book; they were a couple things I enjoyed. I loved the relationship between Cass and her sister, Paige, it was very realistic. Also, humor was thrown in at unlikely times, something I'm always a sucker for. Overall, an okay book, not at the top of my favorites list, but not a complete downer, though I won't be reading it again. 

  

2.5/5 stars