A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

Helen has been haunting people for over a century. She is used to her lonely existence... never seen, never heard, but in some ways she feels as if she has been a muse to her hosts (or the people she haunts), she has inspired them. She doesn’t remember much of her past life other than her name and her age and has always felt that something has kept her from heaven, but she just can't remember what it was. She refers to herself as Light, while she calls living human beings the Quick.

One day while in class with the English teacher she has been haunting, she feels eyes on her. One of the students can see her!?! Billy Blake is the emo kid in the back of the room, does drugs, doesn’t do very well in class, nothing unremarkable about him at all. That is until a ghost named James takes over his body after Billy’s spirit leaves his body after a drug overdose. Billy (or really James) can now see Helen. He explains how Billy’s spirit left his body behind and he is now in that body.

As Helen and James begin to fall in love - there are obviously some issues with this relationship. Helen’s lack of a body being the biggest. Luckily for Helen, James has a knack for finding spirit-less bodies, and they find one body belonging to a girl named Jenny whom is also roaming around spirit-less. With both Helen and James having bodies they can now love each other more freely and also help one another discover details to their lives before being “light” but there are still many obstacles in their path - especially those of the lives of the two kids they are now inhabiting.

This was surprisingly very good. It was beautifully written, almost lyrical in nature. You become immersed in Helen and James, and their star-crossed lover-esque type relationship, from the start. You can't help rooting for their love and can only hope that they can somehow find a way to make it work.

Although this is classified as young adult novel, I think it is geared more towards older teens and adults. For starters, James and Helen are both in their late 20's so they might look like teenagers, but they certainly don't talk, feel or act like teenagers. Also, I will forewarn that there are some sex scenes (yes, more than one). But they were very tasteful - more like a fade to black, but still more than you normally find in your everyday YA novel.

All in all, reading A Certain Slant of Light was a joy. There are so many emotions infused in the storyline (i.e. hope, self-forgiveness, longing, love) that at times I wasn't sure if to laugh or cry (although I will confess that I did both). I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a ghost story that will leave you feeling haunted and have you thinking about it long after you have put it down.

My Rating: