From Publishers Weekly
What starts out as a fairly conventional love story finishes as a ghost tale, blending the horror of war with the sepulchral chill of the supernatural. Bob's friendship with beautiful, sickly Valerie soon becomes romantic. When Valerie dies, only Bob knows that her willful spirit still lingers among the living. What Bob does not fully realize, however, is that this spirit is determined to leech away his own life force. Westall's gripping tale is good, spooky fun--and thought-provoking as well. The authentically depicted setting--northern England, at the time of World War II--serves to anchor the ghostly goings-on firmly in the real world. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-8-- Westall falls far short of his abilities in this lackluster novel about a boy haunted by his deceased girlfriend. Bob, 14, admires sickly Valerie's beauty, but doesn't get to know her until her family invites him to tea. He visits her occasionally and circumspectly so he won't be ridiculed by his male schoolmates. He and Valerie experience a small romance characterized mostly by Bob conducting her on little excursions, without her parents' knowledge, outside the garden walls. In an emotional moment, Bob promises to find Valerie if she ever gets lost, not knowing she will use this in her ghost form to try to take him with her. Told in a tone that's disappointingly dispassionate, the story inspires no sympathy for its characters: not Valerie, alive or dead, nor Bob, even when he's being drained of life's energy so he'll join her in the cold otherworld. Only Valerie's father is a convincing human being in a collection of otherwise ho-hum personalities. Bob sometimes seems to be 17, other times 12, especially when he continually refers to Valerie's developing breasts as the "bulges" under her blouse (sweater, dress, robe, whatever) or when he's concealing his affection for Valerie from his buddies. Even the horror element is flat. Valerie's ghost isn't scary or sinister, nor is the plot suspenseful. She doesn't even begin her haunting until over two-thirds of the way through the book, and most readers won't get that far. --Ellen Ramsay, Amphitheater High Sch . , Tucson, AZ
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
