Book Review: Teen Spirit by Francesca Lia Block

Teen Spirit by Francesca Lia Block

Publication Date: February 4th, 2014 

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal

Pages: 240

Format: Hardcover

Source: Bought

Read: January 16th to 21st, 2016

Rating: 2/5

~Summary~

Francesca Lia Block, critically acclaimed author of Weetzie Bat, brings this eerie and redemptive ghost story to life with her signature, poetic prose. It's perfect for fans of supernatural stories with a touch of romance like the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

After Julie's grandmother passes away, she is forced to move across town to the not-so-fancy end of Beverly Hills and start over at a new school. The only silver lining to the perpetual dark cloud that seems to be following her? Clark—a die-hard fan of Buffy and all things Joss Whedon, who is just as awkward and damaged as she is. Her kindred spirit.

When the two try to contact Julie's grandmother with a Ouija board, they make contact with a different spirit altogether. The real kind. And this ghost will do whatever it takes to come back to the world of the living.

Francesca Lia Block's latest young adult novel is a haunting work about family, loss, love, and redemption.

~My Thoughts~

I'm utterly disappointed, this book was meh and I was absolutely bored throughout it. There were little dashes where I was entertained but then those moments would flicker away, not going to there full potential. Nothing exciting or scary happened, I wasn't sitting on the edge of my seat. And the romance, what romance? It was absolutely boring and there was nothing romantic about it. There was no development for it. 

At first I thought it was just the first 50 pages, the world building, for why it was boring...but then I got deeper into the book and nothing was happening. I feel like something was holding back the author when it came to the supernatural part of the book or maybe it was just her style of writing I didn't like. Where she gave glimpses of things that can't be explained and then doesn't go deeper into those things. Like Julie can see auras and has very symbolic dreams but they don't really go into explaining why she has these gifts, just leads on where they make you think "could this be why?".

Honestly it was just silly watching her make the same mistake over and over again. I get it, everyone handles grief in there own way. But you'd think she would know not to mess with an Ouija board. Overall this was very lackluster and I didn't really connect with the characters. It's a simple read but at one point I wanted to quit the book all together. I was hopeful things would get exciting....I knew I was going to be wrong.

Sweet Readings Everybody!