A Girl, a Ghost, and the Hollywood Hills

October 11, 2010
Something is rotten in the state of California. In this update of Shakespeare's Hamlet, when Holly returns home to Los Angeles on Christmas break from her East Coast prep school, she has to face the reality that her father is dating her mother's tacky sister, Claudia, only months after her mother's unexpected death. Holly is horrified at her father and naturally thinks badly of Claudia, but after a visit from her mother's ghost, she suspects that Claudia may have murdered her sister so she could move in on Holly's father and her mother's production company. Given Hollywood's noirish history, the setting is a natural for this reimagining, as Zindel (The Secret Rites of Social Butterflies) mixes pop culture references and talk of Hollywood movers and shakers into the paranormally inflected mystery. Zindel's twist ending is affecting and entirely her own, but some choices (Holly bemoaning her inability to avenge her mother's death while in a bathroom stall; the drag performances in the video Holly uses to suggest Claudia's guilt) seem played for laughs and lessen its emotional impact. Ages 12–up.

October 1, 2010

For her third outing, Zindel (Girl of the Moment, 2007, and The Secret Rites of Social Butterflies, 2008) takes a stab at updating Hamlet, transforming the melancholy Dane into a California girl mourning her mother's suicide--or was it? At boarding school back East, Holly has been ignoring her father's e-mails for months, attempting to block out the reality of his newfound romance with--ew!--Holly's late mother's sister, Claudia. Stuck at home for two weeks on Christmas break, fueled by grief and visitations from her mother's ghost, Holly's loathing and resentment of Claudia blossom into suspicion that her aunt poisoned her mother, so she sets out to prove it, with disastrous but ultimately life-affirming results. A novel about a teenager struggling to adapt to her radically changing family dynamic in the months following her mother's suicide is a very worthy type of book. That novel, however, saddled with the author's determination to shoehorn in thinly drawn stand-ins for Polonius, Ophelia and Laertes, as well as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and an iMovie version of the Claudius-poisons-King-Hamlet play (starring rowdy Australians), is a hot mess. (Fiction. YA) 

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December 1, 2010

Gr 8 Up-Holly comes home from boarding school knowing that her dad is now dating her aunt. Her deceased mom, who had inherited Goldmeyer Productions from her father, didn't get along with her sister, and Holly dislikes and distrusts the woman. When her mother's ghost appears, telling Holly that she was murdered by Aunt Claudia, the teen becomes consumed with planning her revenge. In the midst of all of this, Holly meets and falls for Ollie, a cute marine biology student at UCLA, and has a lot of escapades with her best friend, Felicia. This Hamlet-like story will appeal to avid and reluctant readers alike. With a Hollywood setting complete with shopping on Rodeo Drive, posh parties, and Porsches, the book reads like an episode of 90210. Holly is a strong character faced with tough decisions on how to handle this new family dynamic and a strange stepmom-to-be, along with juggling a newfound relationship with a guy she's crazy about. While the arrival of Holly's cousins is a bit silly and contrived, it is the catalyst for the re-enactment movie that brings everything to a head. Overall, this is a fun read that will appeal to fans of ghost stories as well as those who love a good problem or romance novel.-Gina Bowling, South Gibson County High School, Medina, TN

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