A Girl, A Ghost, and the Hollywood Hills by Lizabeth Zindel

This book is slightly weird. Not bad weird, just.... Interesting weird. It tells of a girl named Holly who vows to avenge the death of her mother. Her reason? She sees the ghost of her mother, who appears and states that it was Claudia, her mother's sister and Holly's aunt, that killed her. To make things worse, Claudia has taken over her sister's movie production company, her house, and now is even Holly's dad's girlfriend. What does Holly think about this? Gross.

Lizabeth Zindel wrote a book that will make you feel extremely sorry at Holly and laugh at her at the same time. This girl's imagination? Borderline crazy. This book takes on a nearly Hamlet-like twist, full of ghosts, stepmothers, a cute guy, and teenage romance. It's a highly entertaining story, and one even Shakespeare fans will enjoy, as there are many parallels with Hamlet. In Zindel's book, venture the meaning of family, love, and forgiveness.

Like any other book with stepmothers, the stepmother is portrayed as evil. In this book, Claudia is portrayed by Holly to be a thieving knock-out gorgeous person with an affinity for drinking and 'chilling'. Holly thinks she's crazy and also, that she poisoned her mom. After all, her mother's ghost came and told her, and whatever ghosts say is always right. ....Right?

"I know brides are supposed to be angelic, and usually they are, but she looked like a monster in lace."

~ Holly describing her aunt in a wedding dress

Well, that gives an insight into exactly what Holly thinks of her aunt as, doesn't it? She's really just kind of messed up... Then again, something's twisted in the state of Cali!

I recommend this book to teens. In general. It's a hilarious book, especially if you have a family member you just cannot bring yourself to like...

***I give this book a 8.5 out of 10!***