The Dead and Buried, by Kim Harrington

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A haunted house, a buried mystery, and a very angry ghost make this one unforgettable thriller.

Jade loves the house she's just moved into with her family. She doesn't even mind being the new girl at the high school: It's a fresh start, and there's that one guy with the dreamy blue eyes. . . . But then things begin happening. Strange, otherworldly things. Jade's little brother claims to see a glimmering girl in his room. Jade's jewelry gets moved around, as if by an invisible hand. Kids at school whisper behind her back like they know something she doesn't.

Soon, Jade must face an impossible fact: that her perfect house is haunted. Haunted by a ghost who's seeking not just vengeance, but the truth. The ghost of a girl who ruled Jade's school — until her untimely death last year. It's up to Jade to put the pieces together before her own life is at stake. As Jade investigates the mystery, she discovers that her new friends in town have more than a few deep, dark secrets. But is one of them a murderer?



The Dead and Buried started out as a four-star book, but I ultimately had to give it two stars.

I should know better than to read ghost stories.  I have an over-active imagination and freak myself out over the smallest things.  :: shudder ::

This is not, however, a book that will scare me and keep me up at night.  It's a quick read à la R.L. Stine or Christopher Pike: enjoyable, but without a whole lot of depth.  This book is marketed to the Young Adult crowd, but I would recommend it for the middle grades.  It has a much younger feel to it than what I usually read in YA.

There are a few things that jumped out at me when reading this book:

1. I'm tempted to take away another star for these comments alone:

I felt guilty for my snap judgement earlier about his behavior in the office.  He wasn't a jerk.  He was just . . .broken.

and

He was broken.  Maybe beyond repair.  I had to accept it and move on.

I am SO.TIRED. of the "broken" generalization.  It's over-used and seems like such a "crutch" description in the YA genre.  Don't know how to portray a character?  Call him broken and get your point across without having to do any work!  This rant isn't necessarily directed at The Dead and Buried (it's the whole genre, really), but the moment I came across this phrase, I groaned aloud.

2. Do five-year-olds play with Star Wars figurines and watch the movies?  I can't imagine letting my son watch something that violent.  Not a criticism, just something I wondered about while reading.

3. Incorrect usage of number vs. amount.  A person does not have an amount of shirts.  A person has a number of shirts.  It really bugs me when editors miss such glaring grammatical errors.

If I hadn't received this as a review copy, I would have given up.  Thankfully, it didn't take too much time to read.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.