Body & Soul

Today’s post is on Body & Soul by Stacey Kade. It is the last book in her Ghost and the Goth trilogy; as such you need to have read the first two in order to understand the story. It is 316 pages long and is published by Hyperion. The cover has the two main characters on it walking hand in hand towards a light. The intended reader is young adult, likes ghost stories, and love stories. There is mild language, no sex, and some violence in this novel. The story is told from the first person perspective of the two main character’s moving from one to the other by chapter. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- The Ghost: I’ve been trapped in the body of Lily ‘Ally’ Turner for a month now. Talk about a fashion crisis on an epic scale. What worries more, though, is sometimes I catch Will looking at me as is he thinks I’m Lily… or wishes I were. Without the good looks of my former self, I don’t know who I am, or if who that is, is good enough. I need out of this mess. Now.
Will and I have been looking for a solution, one that would separate me from Lily without killing her. But it’s not going well. Then, when it seems like things couldn’t get any worse, we run into Misty, my former best friend and boyfriend-stealer extraordinaire, who claims that she’s being haunted… by me. Seriously?
I’m determined to get to the bottom of who’s pretending to be the spirit of Alona Dare (While I’m pretending to be someone else), and then get the heck out of this body. Or die trying…

The Goth: I’ll admit it. It’s really weird to look at Alona but see Lily. I do know the difference,, contrary to what Alona might be saying. And Alona is more than a pretty face to me, not that she would believe that. Our one lead for some help in this messed-up situation might be a page torn from the yellow pages- the “Psychics” section- that I found in my dad’s old stuff. One of the fakes seems a bit more real- and odd- than the others. Before I can investigate further, though, Alona is off and chasing a ghost that’s probably nothing more than a figment of Misty’s guilty imagination.
Now Lily’s family is freaking out because she didn’t come home, my mom is ordering me to stay out of it, and something is definitely wrong with the person formerly known as Lily “Ally” Turner.

Review- This series started out so funny with a sharp plot. But it ended with a sigh. Kade did not tie up any of the loose ends in this series. We still do not know anything about the world at large, about the Order, why Will’s dad killed himself. The only thing that was ended was Alona being a ghost. At the end she is still in Lily Turner’s body and now she can see ghosts herself. Everything about this book was just not what I was hoping for. I am fine with Alona and Will ending up together but I wanted more. I think that maybe Kade was going to write more books in this series but it just did not pan out. And the readers are the ones who lose. All that good setting, dialog, and tension are just done. This makes me wonder about reading more by Kade. Because what if this is the way that she wanted to finish the series. Read the first book and enjoy it but skip the others.

I give this book a Two out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.