Mini Reviews: Glitter Kiss and Ghosting

Glitter Kiss by Adrianne Ambrose, illustrated by Monica Gallagher

Tinka, the school “slut”, unwittingly gets revenge on jerky guys when she kisses them wearing a magical lip gloss. Let’s just say it makes them see things from her point of view. It was a pretty cute story, but a little throat-ramming with its message. It also has a kinda negative view on gender – most of the boys are complete a-holes and it focuses a lot on how hard it is to be a girl. This is a graphic novel and I don’t have a lot of experience with them, but the characters – especially the secondary characters – were quite two-dimensional. The ending was really abrupt, which detracted from the overall experience. The illustrations were lovely, however.

Rating: 2.5/5

Ghosting by Keith Gray

Nat and his sister Sandy make their living by scamming grieving people into believing they can communicate with the dead. But they get way in over their heads. Unfortunately the plot is totally predictable and so the events are not scary at all. I saw what was coming - right down to the “twist” at the end - from miles away. I know it’s only a short story but there wasn’t much in the way of character development. The villain is entirely obvious and his MO is like something ripped out of a bad episode of Law and Order. There were several improbable plot points. Altogether a very ordinary read.

Rating: 2/5

I received review copies of these books from the publishers via Netgalley.