125. Preloved by Shirley Marr

Preloved by Shirley Marr
Published April 2012 Black Dog Books

From the publisher:
Amy is always the support act to the beautiful and glamorous Rebecca. When they find a locket during an 80s dress-up day, Rebecca does not want anything to do with it as she thinks it is ugly. Using wisdom borrowed from Tolkien, Amy is able to open the locket and when she does she releases the ghost inside. Logan, the handsome teenager - obviously meant to haunt Rebecca, but stuck with Amy. 


Amy's mother is Chinese and she has been told about ghosts her whole life, bizarre superstitions like, 'don't touch the sleep in a cat's eye, and then touch your own eyes, because you will see a ghost'  or 'don't let anyone say your name after dark because a ghost might hear and use it to call you'  or the one that Amy should have actually listened to, 'You should never keep stuff you find, it could have black magic on it.



I am still a little bit stuck in the 80s, so this book was a bit of a treat for me...the clothes, the music, the movies.  The main character's favourite movie is also one of my favourites, The Princess Bride.  When Logan Feldman appears after Amy opened a locket on the schools 80s fancy dress day, it's Amy's job to find out why he is there and why does he keep calling Rebecca, Stacey?

With Amy's Chinese heritage the concept of reincarnation is not new to her, but what she finds out about Logan, also brings to light the reason why is has come to her specifically.  I can't say too much more without giving the ending away, so there we have it.

I did like this book, but I did get frustrated a bit.  If a ghost appeared at my feet (and if I believed that ghosts exists), and I know he supposedly went to my school, the first thing I would do is go to old yearbooks, or look online, to find out who he was.  Amy doesn't do this straight away, and the whole time she is puzzling over his identity, I wanted to jump into the book and tell her what to do.  Apart from that, which is a personal piece of nit picking, the book was good.  In addition to the ghost story element, the book is about family, mothers,  culture, and teenage friendships. 

Who will like this book: Girls age 14+
Read it if you like: Mediator series by Meg Cabot