Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Ghost Roast by Shawnee Gibbs and Shawnelle Gibbs

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I saw the cover and read the premise and knew I had to read Ghost Roast. So shout out to Shawnee and Shawnelle Gibbs for coming through with an arc copy. Check out my review below.

Chelsea Grant is attending one to popular private schools and has finally gotten in with the popular crowd. But after a crazy night out ends with Chelsea and her friends getting arrested, everyone finds out that her dad is the paranormal remover expert with the commercials all over town. To add further embarrassment,  her punishment is to work with him for the summer. 

When they get a big job at an old plantation, Chelsea discovers she has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. So while her dad uses his fancy equipment to try and track them, she does her best to throw him off the path of her new ghost friend. There's great use of New Orleans history weaved seamlessly into this story with Chelsea's mother also working for the Historical Society. And though Chelsea goes to a private school she's not the sole rich Black kid or the suffering scholarship archetype that we come across in every YA book lately. And while fitting in is a goal of hers she's not hyper focused with comparing herself to her white peers which was refreshing. It manages to tackle tough topics like plantation hotels and hidden history while still feeling like a lighthearted story written for real teens.

There are little threads sprinkled in that I would've liked to see more of an could easily be expanded if this became a series.


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