City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab REVIEW

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Started: 13/10/18

Finished: 17/10/18

Spoilers: No.

Victoria is one of those authors who can write a compelling story for any audience of any age.

I liked this, and I don't normally go for children's books, but I had to try it as it's V.E. Schwab. I took the fact that it's a kid's book at face vaual so I won't try to compare it to the standard of Vicious or the Shades of Magic series, but I still think it'll hold it's own among the Middle Grade genre.

Characters It's a pretty short book so we don't really have time to explore the ins and outs of each character in any particular depth, but that being said, there was enough depth for me to like and enjoy Cassidy and Jacob. I really liked the bond they had and I'm quite interested to see where future books will take them and how further adventures may affect their friendship.

Cassidy's ghost stalking parents are cool enough but pretty nondescript. They don't have much personality past their jobs, but I did like that they were caring parents who actually gave a shit.

I wasn't the biggest fan of Lara, but I think that's because I'm not a fan of the prim and proper Brit archetype. But she was interesting enough. I was expecting a betrayal from her and was quite pleased when there wasn't.

Plot The plot was actually the strongest part of this book, which is very fitting for a children's book. Kids are most interested in fast flowing storylines than over-cooked world building and intense character development.

Cassidy Blake is an American girl who can see ghosts and pass through the Veil into a sort of limbo world. Her best friend is Jacob. He's also a ghost inexplicably connected to her after he saved her life one day. Her parents, paranormal investigators who write books on ghosts, have no idea of her ability. They start filming their own ghost show in Edinburgh and Cassidy comes up against all kinds of ancient spirits there.

I liked that her parents didn't know about her, but part of me was kind of hoping that she'd tell them what she could do.

As far as I can gather, the lore behind the Raven in Red story is made up. The only story that comes close in resemblance is The Green Lady, but that's not in Edinburgh. Obviously this doesn't matter in the least as I still enjoyed it but a small part of me was hoping that it was a true ghost story as I love things based on real life myth and legend.

Setting Edinburgh was painted to be a wonderfully dark and gothic city steeped in fascinating history. Reading books like this that explore so much history kind of makes me proud to be British. We as a small nation have so many thousands of years of recorded history and V.E. Schwab did a very good job capturing the tone of that history and the eerie, spooky feeling that comes with it.

With so much history and so much time passing from generation to generation, it makes ghosts and hauntings a very real prospect. Schwab certainly used as much history as she could to bring this city and it's paranormal underside to life. The map was also a nice touch. Now I have a real hankering to visit Edinburgh and visit some of these ancient, ghostly sites.

Writing Style Good, solid writing. Not her best of course by a long shot but this is a kid's book and written as such. I think for a Middle Grade novel it's actually very well written and isn't as 'dumbed down' as some children's book can be.

Now, these are probably the only criticisms I'm likely to give Victoria Schwab book as I'm a stout lover of her work. She's my favourite author but I'm not going to pretend something's perfect when in actual fact it annoys me. To clarify, I'm pretty sure these things only bugged me because I'm English and I'm also sure that an American reader wouldn't have had a single issue.

The near constant translation of English words at the start got a bit boring. I really didn't need to be told what fish and chips is, or a flat or a lift.

The term "British accent." (A general pet peeve for me.) The Scots in this book had Scottish accents, naturally, but we English are always said to have "British accents". TIn reality, there's no such thing as a British accent. In actual fact, there's no such thing as an English accent even, aswe have so many regional accents. In England, drive half hour in any direction and the people there will have a different accent.

But this is a criticism of V.E. Schwab, just the term "British accent" in general.

There's also a few too many Harry Potter references. I know it's Britain, I know Harry Potter was written in Edinburgh, but not all readers are HUGE Harry Potter fans. Could've been toned down a little.

Also the fact that every British character is drinking tea at some point eventhough coffee is more popular in the UK.

This book is definitely written for an American audience and their quaint ideal of us.

Final Impression I enjoyed this a lot. It was a very quick read at less than 300 pages with large print, but really it was the steady pacing and interesting plot that had me racing through it. If there's more of these in the future, I'll certainly give them a go. Good, strong start, and I can only see it getting better from here.