In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?
Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time
When I bought this book, I kind of forgot what it was about, but I remembered reading the description at some point and thinking it sounded pretty good. So I bought it and read it and oh my GOD, it was so good.
So this book has like, everything awesome. The history part of it was awesome (WWI), and then there were ghosts! Really! Ohmigoodness.
So the setting is WWI, America. It's in 1918, the year the war ends and in America there's this awful flu (Spanish) that kills a bunch of people. It basically came out of nowhere, also.
The main character is named Mary Shelley Black, after some character in Frankenstein. Sorry I don't know everything from that book, I feel like I should know at least something but I've never read it! Oh no! I should get on that. Anyways. Mary Shelley. She's a curious person. Her mother was a physician so she carries around a black doctor's bag and wears goggles around her neck. Big goggles that cover like more than half of her face. Her mom, dead. Her dad, taken away for being a traitor to the Germans (he's not). So she's sent off to live with her aunt and that's when the story starts!
The second main character is Stephen. Her boyfriend. Kind of. He only shows up for awhile in the book, in the beginning and a little more towards the middle and a lot towards the end. But I can't say a lot about him. Sorry.
Her aunt is another big character in the story, obviously, because Mary Shelley lives with her! Her aunt is not that much older than Mary Shelley, probably like ten years, so she acts like a teenager (Mary Shelley is sixteen). She's really scared of the flu so she uses all sorts of home remedies--that apparently people did try at that time, according to the author's note. She makes onion omelets and feeds them to Mary Shelley in the morning, she also makes mothball things to hang around their necks. Onions for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yum.
Uck.
Okay this is a really short review for such a good book, but it seems like I've just run out of words to describe it without giving away a whole lot, which I really do not want to do! At least with this book, if you read the inside cover or the description online, it's okay because it doesn't give a thing away!
Actually the description doesn't tell you a whole lot about the book. So just, I don't know, go for it! Take a risk.
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