Teen Spirit

Starred review from November 25, 2013
Poetry and pop culture, life and death—these are just two of the polarities that pulse through Block’s elegantly crafted novel. When Julie’s beloved grandmother Miriam dies, Julie’s life turns upside down. After she and her mother move from their cozy Hollywood cottage to a bleak apartment in Beverly Hills, Julie starts her senior year at a new high school. There she meets sweetly eccentric Clark, who is also mourning a loss. Their easy friendship grows complicated once Julie gets to know Grant, Clark’s beguiling, bad-boy twin. As Julie and Clark navigate their grief and forge a path through quotidian high-school life, Block (Love in the Time of Global Warming) makes a refreshing case for the virtues of the nice guy. Julie and Clark are fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and between the ghost-centric plot and Julie’s strained relationship with her mother, Block’s novel could pass for an episode of the show. While the spooky goings-on, eerie romance, and magical-hipster Los Angeles setting have broad appeal, the story has even richer treasures in store for readers who dig deeper. Ages 14–up. Agent: Laurie Liss, Sterling Lord Literistic.

January 15, 2014
One haunted girl chooses between twin brothers--who inhabit the same body. Julie's best friend is her beloved grandmother, Miriam. But when she dies, everything falls apart. Julie's mom falls into a depression and loses her job and their home. Friendless and lonely, Julie must start her senior year in a new school while living in a terrible Beverly Hills apartment. Everything looks up when she meets Clark, a happy eccentric. Clark, with his wacky hats and his healthy suppers, sustains Julie even as her mother shows the clearest signs of mental breakdown: dressing attractively and dating. Still, what about the devilishly attractive boy who looks just like Clark and kisses like a dream? Could he truly be Clark's dead twin, Grant? She all too accurately compares her dilemma to preteens at a Twilight premiere; some of her thoughts "were on team Grant and some were on team Clark." Julie's quest to solve her boy troubles is tied inextricably to her grief over her grandmother; she must use her latent psychic powers to resolve both. Her quest takes her over a New-Age map of Los Angeles, where a multicultural mishmash of every ethnicity with a spirituality to appropriate teaches her that "maybe a shaman is just someone who understands that life is filled with loss and pain." Try Rosemary Clement-Moore's Spirit and Dust (2013) instead for a more substantial psychic teen. (Paranormal romance. 14-18)

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January 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Block returns with a haunting ghost story set in her beloved Los Angeles. In the course of a few months, Julie has lost everything. Her grandmother died. Her mother lost her job, and subsequently their house. And Julie's been forced to move into a cramped two-bedroom apartment in a new school district while her mother goes through a midlife crisis that involves dating an aging metalhead. When she meets Clark, an enigmatic and peculiar senior, the two form an instant connection until Julie convinces him to help her contact her dead grandmother via an old Ouija board. Unfortunately, their misguided attempt has lasting and haunting repercussions when a malevolent ghost possesses Clark's body. Suddenly, the teens are running all over Los Angeles trying to find herbs and roses to cleanse Clark of this spirit before he's lost forever. Told in Block's signature, flowing prose, Teen Spirit is a layered story that's more about grief than it is about ghosts. Julie's narration is fast paced and accessible; readers won't be bogged down by intricate plots or complex ghost mythology. This is just a story about two kids learning to deal with loss. Julie realizes she cannot cling to the dead; she must hold her grandmother in her heart as she tries to live her own life. A beautiful story from a legendary young adult author.-Kimberly Garnick Giarratano, Rockaway Township Public Library, NJ

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2013
Grades 9-12 After the death of her beloved grandmother, Julie, 17, and her mom try to pick up the pieces. Julie does it by befriending quirky weirdo Clark, and her mother by reentering the dating scene, courtesy of aging rocker Luke. With Clark in tow, Julie busts out a Ouija board to contact her grandmother, but the ghost that shows up instead is specific to Clarkuntil the ghost develops a lustful taste for Julie, too. It may sound like standard paranormal romantic stuff, but if we've learned anything from Block's takes on vampires (Pretty Dead, 2009) and dystopia (Love in the Time of Global Warming, 2013), it's that nothing she does is standard. Classic Blockian traits are in place: a kitschy, palm-tree-decked California wonderland; a guileless sweetness spiked with moments of grittiness and sexuality; and characters steeped in time-sensitive pop culture in a way that feels timeless. All that said, this coasts on charm a bit while the plot works itself out along expected lines. But readers who are already grooving to Block's tune will love it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)