Notes From Ghost Town By: Kate Ellison

Olivia's mother is awaiting trial for the murder of Lucas Stern.  Stern was Olivia's bestie since forever and her mom's piano student.  After Olivia left for art school in Michigan, something happened.  Did it have something to do with her mom's mental illness or is the mental illness just making them all think that that's what happened?  All Olivia knows is that she lost everything.  Her mom, her ability to see color and paint, her best friend and the one she loved but never got to tell.

Now Stern is back, real or imagined, and it's up to Olivia to figure out what really happened the night he died.  And she only has nine days....





This was one of those books that once it heated up, I didn't want to put it down.  Olivia (Liv, Livie, Liver, Red, Grizzly... the girl has a lot of nicknames), has lost nearly everything and doesn't want to care anymore, but she just can't help it.  Especially when Stern shows up.  She knows she might be crazy (schizophrenia has genetic components after all) and it scares her to death.  If the colorblindness and Sterns ghost are delusions, then they're pretty darn realistic.  Stern tells her where to find things that she never knew about and she hasn't seen color in 10 months.  As she starts digging deeper into the mystery of Stern's death and her mother's involvement (she did confess after all), she begins to realize there is a lot more to it... even if no one believes her.

I loved the mystery and the writing in this book.  I sort of had my suspicions of where the mystery was going, but that was ok.  The writing was beautiful and emotional.  It didn't make me cry, but right at the end I was close.  I thought it was pretty genius to make an artist be colorblind, especially during such a dark time in her life. 

The relationship between Stern and Olivia definitely pulled at my heart, but at the same time it made me smile.  I was sad that they could never be, but all the memories she had of him were so fun and happy.  With her friend Raina it was the same way.  They had these sweet little moments that made me wish I had a friend like that, but then at the same time I didn't fully trust Raina because she could be shady at times.

There was a romance in this book, but it was done perfectly.  Austin wasn't used as a replacement and Olivia knew that just because she was attracted to someone else it didn't erase the fact that she loved Stern.

I definitely will recommend this book.  It's so beautifully written, how could I not? 

Quote I Liked:
"Chaos is what we are made of, and we will return to it, again, and again, and again.  Our hearts will beat for it while our brains will search for order, and find that, almost always, it is elusive."

Overall: A seriously addicting, emotional roller coaster of a book.  I think fans of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer would like this.

Add it to your To-Read List!!

My Rating:

How I got this book: Library
Date Published: 2/12/2013