Intended Audience: Tweens
Genre: Graphic Novel; Supernatural
Notes for parents: Some scenes of violence and themes of death and the afterlife
The Back Cover
When Garth Hale is accidentally zapped into the ghost world by Frank Gallows, a washed-up ghost wrangler, he discovers that he has special powers. Soon he finds himself on the run from the evil ruler of Ghostopolis, who wants to use Garth’s newfound abilities to tighten his grip on the spirit world. After Garth meets Cecil, his grandfather’s ghost, the two search for a way to get Garth back home, nearly losing hope until Frank Gallows shows up to fix his mistake.
What the Back Cover doesn’t tell you:
This is a stand-alone graphic novel.
What’s good?
The graphics are well-done and the characters are very entertaining. The dialogue is witty and even made me laugh out loud a few times. The story itself is has many subplots, but they’re all kept fairly simple. Although the book is quite dark, the humour lightens it up. There’s violence, but it’s the comic book whomp and pow kind.
Best part: Skinny the skeleton horse.
What’s not so good?
This is not a complex story. The main character doesn’t get emotional at all about being diagnosed with a fatal disease, being ripped away from his mother and pulled into the afterworld, meeting a skeletal horse, etc. In fact, he doesn’t get emotional about anything. If it weren’t so dark, I’d call it a cute, little story.
Worst part: There was nothing terrible.
Recommendations þþþoo
This is mostly a story for male tweens who have enjoyed other graphic novels. The ghost creatures are fun and the story is a quick, enjoyable read.
Tennapel, Doug. Ghostopolis. New York: Scholastic, 2010.
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