A Gift for a Ghost

January 6, 2020
The lives of two teenage girls living 160 years apart intertwine in this magical coming-of-age story. In 1856, Theresa, an insouciant young woman with a taste for gothic poetry, is on the cusp of her debut into society and facing the expectations that come with it. In 2016, Laura, wearing a new costume each time she appears (sometimes as a fairy princess, sometimes a skeleton), writes inscrutable lyrics for her all-girl punk band. The mystery at the heart of this evocative graphic novel is exactly what connects these two girls, and the book cannily uses the artwork to provide clues. Teresa’s story appears in muted autumnal colors, while Laura’s is in black-and-white, except where pops of color escape from Teresa’s narrative—butterflies, ice cream, a cat, a costume. Each page is elegantly composed, with flat blacks that invoke a Mike Mignola–esque chiaroscuro. Though the figures are faceless, each character has a distinctive personality and body language that mark them as individuals. The idiosyncrasies of teenage girls’ friendships and sibling relationships are quietly conveyed and thoroughly believable. Combining understated visual storytelling and dialogue with gentle fantasy, this mystical story is wonderfully grounded in real emotion and experiences.

February 1, 2020

In 1856, a young woman named Teresa frustrates her family by spending more time writing strange poems about vampires, ghouls, and flaming velocipedes than preparing for her society debut. In 2016, a group of high school girls starts a band called the Black Holes, even though none of them can play an instrument, and they spend more time wandering around a nearby lake at night than practicing. One of them, Laura, writes lyrics that sound like "the Bront� Sisters giving a talk about a study on the thermonuclear fusion of stars." Spanish cartoonist Gonz�lez establishes a complex web of plot and thematic connections bridging the 160 years that separate these story lines using a variety of techniques--an orange cat drifts from a scene in one era into a key moment set in another, dialog overlaps, a shoreline shares the same contours as a butterfly wing. Eventually, a desperate act committed in one era directly impacts characters in the other, setting one character free and shattering another. VERDICT Elegantly crafted, with delicate cartooning and a brilliant autumnal color palette, Gonz�lez's first full-length work delivers a quietly emotional evocation of the universal hopes and desires linking characters across centuries.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2020
Grades 9-12 Theresa, a young aristocrat and aspiring poet, happens upon what seems to be a living, talking, moving skeleton in the forest. After the two exchange banter, the narrative splits into parallel story lines: in 1856, Theresa continues her literary craft despite her family's disapproval, while in 2016, three teenage girls try to get their punk band off the ground. Despite some amusing moments and images?such as one teenager stepping in and out of her dinosaur costume to go skinny-dipping?the graphic novel is largely atmospheric and sad, a tone accentuated by Gonz�lez's faceless characters and the many panels dominated by a looming night sky. The characters float, like the ghost in the title, across the page, showing how the struggle to solidify one's individuality and create art has not changed across the centuries. This thoughtful, graceful look into young women trying to find their place in the world may appeal to other adolescent, frustrated artists. Final colors not seen.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)