Absent - Hardcover

Williams, Katie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811871509 ISBN 13: 9780811871501

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2013

Synopsis

When seventeen-year-old Paige dies in a freak fall from the roof during Physics class, her spirit is bound to the grounds of her high school. At least she has company: her fellow ghosts Evan and Brooke, who also died there. But when Paige hears the rumor that her death wasn't an accident—that she supposedly jumped on purpose—she can't bear it. Then Paige discovers something amazing. She can possess living people when they think of her, and she can make them do almost anything. Maybe, just maybe, she can get to the most popular girl in school and stop the rumors once and for all.

About this title

About the Author

Katie Williams teaches writing at the Academy of Art University and is the author of the acclaimed The Space Between Trees. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Reviews

Gr 9 Up-After falling off the roof during an egg-drop experiment for science class, Paige finds herself relegated to haunting the halls of the high school from which she'll never graduate. The 17-year-old is not alone, though, and finds new friends in Brooke and Evan, who also died on school grounds. Together they watch the students and wish for the lives they could have had. As the school year continues, popular girl Kelsey starts a rumor that Paige jumped and committed suicide. Desperate to somehow prove Kelsey's words false, Paige shadows her every move, until she discovers that she can inhabit, and manipulate, others. From Kelsey to her best friend to her secret ex-boyfriend, Paige possesses her classmates, trying over and over to quash Kelsey's hateful rumor. She finds that her actions have larger consequences, though, and that perhaps she is not the only one who has been dabbling in the art of possession. Williams presents readers with an engrossing supernatural story that feels genuine. The ghosts' despondency and Paige's quest for revenge and yearning for acknowledgment will ring true with teens. Readers will be engrossed until the very end, when the students, both living and dead, finally find what they need to move on.-Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CTα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Paige Wheeler died from an accident at her high school, condemning her to an eternal purgatory of cliques, drama, and rumors. As she spies on her living classmates, Paige overhears a rumor that she committed suicide. In an attempt to stop this lie from spreading, Paige possesses her classmates and learns their secrets. Secrets that make her start questioning her “accidental” death. Author Williams offers a suspenseful mystery that sneaks up on you. Paige will interest readers as a girl consumed with the insignificance of her short life and her attempts to be remembered as more than a suicidal teen. Meanwhile, the story connects Paige’s death to a crime riddled with corruption, drugs, and revenge. The mystery is solid, but it is complicated; funny Paige herself sets the story apart, realizing in the end that in order for her death or life to have meaning, she must first accept herself. Grades 7-10. --Bethany Fort

Edition details

• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811871509
• ISBN 13: 9780811871501
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 180