Teen Spirit

by Francesca Lia Block

Overview

Francesca Lia Block, critically acclaimed author of Weetzie Bat, brings this eerie and redemptive ghost story to life with her signature, poetic prose. It's perfect for fans of supernatural stories with a touch of romance like the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

After Julie's grandmother passes away, she is forced to move across town to the not-so-fancy end of Beverly Hills and start over at a new school. The only silver lining to the perpetual dark cloud that seems to be following her? Clark—a die-hard fan of Buffy and all things Joss Whedon, who is just as awkward and damaged as she is. Her kindred spirit.

When the two try to contact Julie's grandmother with a Ouija board, they make contact with a different spirit altogether. The real kind. And this ghost will do whatever it takes to come back to the world of the living.

Francesca Lia Block's latest young adult novel is a haunting work about family, loss, love, and redemption.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062239167
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	02/04/2014
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	871 KB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Francesca Lia Block, winner of the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Award, is the author of many acclaimed and bestselling books, including Weetzie Bat; the book collections Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books and Roses and Bones: Myths, Tales, and Secrets; the illustrated novella House of Dolls; the vampire romance novel Pretty Dead; and the gothic werewolf novel The Frenzy. Her work is published around the world.

Editorial Reviews

01/01/2014
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

School Library Journal

★ 11/25/2013
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. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

I love the lush, melancholy world of this novel, and its heroine, with her century of secrets.

Claudia Gray

PRAISE FOR PRETTY DEAD: “An opulent, surreal world of strange beauty, sudden horror, and lush romance.

Cassandra Clare

PRAISE FOR PINK SMOG: “Pink Smog sparkles and obscures; it’s a glorious mirage, like the city it pays homage to.

Maggie Stiefvater

A true original…[Block] has created something psychologically complex, erotically charged, and unusually poignant.

Booklist (starred review)

Will be gobbled like candy by teen readers.

The Horn Book

With her characteristic flair and seductive prose, Block makes this tangled story of betrayal and love a standout. Sensuous and heartbreaking, sure to both satisfy and challenge fans of the supernatural romance.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

In high school, Julie has always been a bit of a loner. She relies on her tight familial bonds with her mother and grandma Miriam for a sense of connection. With a retro style influenced by her grandma’s flair for clothing and love of poetry (especially Emily Dickinson), Julie keeps mostly to herself. She has never known her sperm donor father, and has heard only that he was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian. While reading the Dickinson poem, “A Visitor in Marl,” Miriam passes away in Julie’s presence. Miriam’s final words—“There’s something I must tell you...” —leave Julie full of questions. Not long after her grandmother’s death, Julie’s mom loses her scriptwriting job. They are forced to leave their artsy home in the Hollywood Hills and move into an apartment in the less-coveted area of Beverly Hills. On her first day at Beverly Hills High, Julie meets Clark, a quirky fellow who wears hats and brings a kicharee to lunch every day. Julie has found a Ouiji board in her new apartment, and she hopes to contact Grandma Miriam to find out about those last words. However, because Clark’s hands are also on the Ouija planchette, he also happens to connect with the spirit world. He also has a secret that he does not share with Julie, but one evening she meets this secret in the body of Grant Morrison. It seems that Clark has a twin brother that he never talks about. Julie finds that she enjoys both boys for their different qualities. She even lets Grant kiss her, which brings all kinds of tingles to her body. He is definitely handsome and self-assured; there’s just one glitch: he also has a secret. This is a quick read that envelops the reader in Julie’s haunting loss, voyage into the occult, tinctures, roses, auras, and of course the mystical world of teen romance. Reviewer: Toni Jourdan; Ages 14 up.

Children's Literature - Toni Jourdan

2014-01-08
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)

Kirkus Reviews