The Dead and Buried

Author: Kim Harrington
Goodreads Rating: 3.85
Pages: 300
Format: ARC from Publisher

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?

I was really hoping for more when it came to this book. I was warned that it wasn’t really a thriller, so I wasn’t let down in this department, but where it lacked in thrills, I was hoping that it would make up for it in plot, characterization and all the other aspects that go into a book. While all of those elements weren’t necessarily bad, they also didn’t stun me. I sort of felt that this book was a little mediocre, and I really hate using that word, but it was just good enough that I could get through reading it.

Where to start. I did like the whole concept of this mysterious death of Kayla, the most popular girl in school. She seemed to have everything going for her in life, and in death she still managed to captivate everyone. She was a generally unlikable girl from what I could tell about her from the book. What I really liked was that we were given glimpses into her diary and what she was going through before she died. One really unique aspect of this was that she would number the people in her life. It was a little tricky to figure out the numbering, but eventually you figure out her system. Even though it was really great getting to see inside her head, she was a truly awful person even though the image that she projected was one of calm and beauty.

I was ambivalent towards Jade. I felt that she was a great big sister the way that she tried her best to protect her little brother, but her paranoia towards her step mom was a little intense. I credit her for keeping a cool head and trying to talk to her parents about the ghost problem, but she gave up after one try. I felt badly that all of these live changes were going on all at once and that having a ghost in your house can be really intense, but I feel like taking up a relationship with said ghosts boyfriend is just a really bad idea because, well, I think that one is self-explanatory.

Jade generally made bad decisions in this book, decisions that time and time again have proved to be bad ones. I mean, these were decision that book and movie characters make on the reg, and so seeing her make those decisions was pretty irritating. I actually felt that the entire book was one giant cliché. There was nothing new about this book, or about the ghost story. The most original thing was who the killer was, and while you for sure couldn’t see that coming, I felt that the way that everything came together was just too strange. 

In the end it was an okay book, but not a great one.

The Courts Decision: