The Ghosts Of Ashbury High

by Jaclyn Moriarty

Overview

This is the story of Amelia and Riley, bad kids from bad Brookfield High who have transferred to Ashbury High for their final year. They've been in love since they were fourteen, they go out dancing every night, and sleep through school all day. And Ashbury can't get enough of them. Everyone's trying to get their attention; even teachers are dressing differently, trying to make their classes more interesting. Everyone wants to be cooler, tougher, funnier, hoping to be invited into their cool, self-contained world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545283250
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	06/01/2010
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
File size:	554 KB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Jaclyn Moriarty grew up in Sydney, Australia, with four sisters (including author Liane Moriarty), one brother, two dogs, and twelve chickens. She studied law at the University of Sydney, Yale, and Cambridge, and worked as an entertainment lawyer before she wrote the Ashbury High novels, including The Year of Secret Assignments, The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, and The Ghosts of Ashbury High. She still lives in Sydney, with her little boy, Charlie.

Editorial Reviews

Returning to the setting and characters of her earlier Ashbury High books, Moriarty offers a mosaic composed largely of students' gothic fiction exams, as they write about their final year of school as a ghost story. Enigmatic Riley and Amelia, a beautiful couple on scholarship, are embroiled in many of the narratives. But like a game of telephone, the conjectural haunting changes as interpreted through each student. The students delight, to varying degrees, in playing with the tropes of gothic literature, lending the story an often wicked sense of humor, creating modern and effective ghost stories in the process. "The more I followed Riley and Amelia, the less I knew of they. Who were they? Whenceforward had they come? Why? Why not?" reads a typically breathless passage from Emily (from The Year of Secret Assignments), who returns along with other characters. Fans of the previous books will enjoy clever references to past events, but this book more than stands on its own, as the students' chorus creates a compelling collective portrait of adolescence--the limbo between childhood and the shadowed future. Ages 12-up. (June)

Publishers Weekly

“Fans of the previous books will enjoy clever references to past events, but this book more than stands on its own, as the students' chorus creates a compelling collective portrait of adolescence--the limbo between childhood and the shadowed future." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Moriarty has found a winning formula for her thoroughly enjoyable, deceptively simple Ashbury High novels: She takes a clever, sophisticated epistolary format, adds sparkling, effervescent wit, and applies them to a mash-up of literary genres…There's a lot of plot to untangle here, but The Ghosts of Ashbury High should satisfy diehard fans and bring new ones into the fold.” -- Horn Book, starred review

“Moriarty has done it again. . . . The author effortlessly employs multiple voices and narrative devices for maximum effect, and each member of the ensemble comes across loud and clear. . . . Another winner, sure to please old fans and create new ones.” -- Kirkus Reviews

"Fans of Moriarty will be delighted with this senior year; newcomers to her work will want to backtrack so that they can spend more time with these characters." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Publisher

The Ghosts of Ashbury High is one of the best young adult novels I have read in a long time. At nearly 500 pages, it is overwhelming and enchanting. Written in the style of a gothic novel, the book occasionally rambles and begins to feel frivolous, but all the narratives eventually weave together and create a powerful story about friendship, love, and forgiveness. The book centers around the exploits of Riley and Amelia, two new students who attend Ashbury High on scholarship. The school, both students and teachers alike, become fascinated with them. They look on amazed as Riley and Amelia demonstrate great talent in almost all areas, including swimming, singing, dancing and acting. At first, Emily is their most avid admirer, but when spooky things begin happening at Ashbury High, she wonders whether Amelia and Riley are as great as they seem. Reviewer: Jennifer Waldrop

Children's Literature - Jennifer Waldrop

The "real world" threatens Emily, Cassie, Lydia, and Toby as they begin their final year at Ashbury High. Right away they commence the Higher School Certificate exams required for entrance to a university. Unexpectedly, a mysterious couple transfers to Ashbury to begin their final year, as well. Students and faculty wonder about the reclusive yet talented Amelia and Riley and the rumors they hear of the couple's delinquent pasts. What's more, Emily is convinced that the ghost of a former student haunts the school. In this suspenseful tale, the characters realize that a wealth of intriguing connections and potentially dangerous secrets lie beneath the surface of their experiences and relationships. Moriarty weaves traditional elements of a Gothic novel with a contemporary multigenre format, and breathes life into quirky adolescents who, in the midst of grappling with heavy life issues, learn a lot about themselves. Reviewer: Erin Bridges

Erin Bridges

Gr 8 Up—This Australian author adds another volume to her sequence of novels centered around a private high school. When two mysterious new scholarship students begin their senior year at Ashbury High, suspicions arise. Amelia and Riley are clearly a couple with an unknown past, and Emily Thompson is determined to find out their secrets. Em is also convinced that there is a ghost haunting Ashbury, and with the (sometimes) help of her friends Lydia and Cassie, she makes the new couple and the ghost her projects for the year. Told in multiple voices through essays written by the students for their senior exam on gothic literature, emails, blog entries, and scholarship-committee meeting notes, the plot moves slowly with numerous side stories woven throughout. They all add up to tell several interconnected stories from a variety of perspectives in an imaginative manner. There is an air of mystery as readers wonder if there really is a ghost and exactly what Riley's and Amelia's past secrets are, but, overall, the suspense doesn't carry the story. Inclusions of humorous gothic elements throughout are pluses along with the ideas of giving second chances and leaving one's past behind. Readers expecting a spine-tingling tale of ghosts and intrigue are likely to be disappointed; this is more of an examination of high school friendships and social life. Those willing to stick with the sometimes slow-moving narrative will be satisfied in the end.—Gina Bowling, South Gibson County High School, Medina, TN

School Library Journal

Moriarty has done it again. Fourth in the loose Brookfield-Ashbury saga (Feeling Sorry for Celia, 2001; The Year of Secret Assignments, 2004; The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, 2006), this Australian import uses multiple formats (journals, exam essays, letters, transcripts) to relate the events of senior year at Ashbury, when two scholarship students with dark pasts and astounding talents shake up the lives of characters who will be familiar to fans. Quirky, comic and self-referential-exam questions about Gothic novels highlight the novel's own gothic elements; weather then plays a crucial role in a climactic, possibly supernatural finale-this romp explores serious issues (especially class and privilege). No one is exactly who you think, and figuring out just what is going on is much of the fun. The author effortlessly employs multiple voices and narrative devices for maximum effect, and each member of the ensemble comes across loud and clear. Despite the heavy underpinnings, the focus is the redemptive power of friendship. Another winner, sure to please old fans and create new ones. (historical note) (Epistolary dramedy. YA)

Kirkus Reviews