Recent Reads: Summer Spirit by Elizabeth Holleville

Summer Spirit by Elizabeth Holleville 
Publisher: Nobrow
Publication Date:  July 7, 2020

 

Format: Hardback
Source: Borrowed from the Library.

Rating:

Synopsis: 

A new YA graphic novel from French illustrator Elizabeth Holleville, Summer Spirit puts a fresh spin on the struggles of growing up as this coming-of-age story takes a supernatural and sinister turn.

Being a teenager is hard enough without finding out your new best friend is a 60 year old ghost...

Louise spends every summer at her grandmother's house with her older sister and their cousins. But this summer, Louise realises her relatives are fast growing up, without her. While they're concerned with boy drama, Louise is suddenly left alone. But then one day she meets Lisa, who will never, ever become a teenager...

Review: 

Another short graphic novel review...I was looking for some graphic novels at the library and came across this ones. I like ghost stories, especially in graphic novel form, so I grabbed it. Sadly it feel very flat for me. 

The story is a coming of age/ young girl to teen book about Louise. She is visiting with her grandmother for a while with her cousins and sister. Her grandmother has some memory loss issues happening and then on top of that her family is leaving her out and being mean because she is slightly younger than them and not interested in the same things they are yet, like boys and drugs, and sneaking out. While alone and lonely, Louise meets Lisa and they play together and hang out ...only Lisa is a ghost. Things start to take a shift when Lisa starts getting scary and mean and then it all abruptly ends when Louise goes home. 

Sadly Louise was a little annoying and needy, so I didn't feel for her too much, and then the ghost story got weird and the family interactions were also weird and it just didn't come together for me. It was kind of boring and I was hoping that something more would happen and it never did. The grandmother's issues were never really addressed, there are mean neighbors and they don't like the dogs, and nothing came of that, and there was a romance happening with the older girls that wasn't fleshed out at all either. There was so much here and I was just left feeling disappointed.

....they can't all be wins, I guess.