Synopsis: Cassidy Blake's parents are The Inspectres, a (somewhat inept) ghost-hunting team. But Cass herself can REALLY see ghosts. In fact, her best friend, Jacob, just happens to be one.
When The Inspectres head to ultra-haunted Edinburgh, Scotland, for their new TV show, Cass—and Jacob—come along. In Scotland, Cass is surrounded by ghosts, not all of them friendly. Then she meets Lara, a girl who can also see the dead. But Lara tells Cassidy that as an In-betweener, their job is to send ghosts permanently beyond the Veil. Cass isn't sure about her new mission, but she does know the sinister Red Raven haunting the city doesn't belong in her world. Cassidy's powers will draw her into an epic fight that stretches through the worlds of the living and the dead, in order to save herself.
Review: City of Ghosts was such a fun read. Cassidy was an interesting character and I enjoyed getting to see how she adapted to her world changing. Everything, from moving to Scotland to finding out she isn't the only one with her powers, felt natural. Jacob was the star of this book. His ability to stay sassy, but loyal, is impressive. Cassidy's parents seemed a bit weird. I loved the setting of Scotland. You can tell Schwab put a lot of time into helping the readers feel like they are there. That being said, the location was beautiful, but the characters were nothing special. There are a couple side characters who helped the story along but, for the most part, they didn't seem very important.
I enjoyed the story of this quite a lot. We get to spend a good amount of time seeing Cassidy navigate Scotland and the Veil. Both places felt completely unique. If anyone is sensitive to death or seeing people die, this might be a book to stay away from. The Veil replays how a ghost dies, so we get to see every moment of that. While it is dark, nothing made me think it was too much for children to enjoy. When the story first started, I really wanted this book to be about Cassidy learning that she doesn't have to make the tragedies of others into her own. I like where this story went, but I still think that would have been a good message, especially since the story starts with Cassidy going into the Veil to see how a ghost died and she appears to be nothing more than a spectator. Again, Schwab does do interesting things with this story.
Fun, quick read that offered beautiful settings and a good amount of sass.
4 howls
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