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28th out of 711 books
—
706 voters
Give Up the Ghost
by
Megan Crewe (Goodreads Author)
Cass McKenna much prefers ghosts over “breathers.” Ghosts are uncomplicated and dependable, and they know the dirt on everybody…and Cass loves dirt. She’s on a mission to expose the dirty secrets of the poseurs in her school.
But when the vice president of the student council discovers her secret, Cass’s whole scheme hangs in the balance. Tim wants her to help him contact
...moreHardcover, 241 pages
Published
September 15th 2009
by Henry Holt and Co.
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Another fantastic debut novel! Give Up the Ghost had a more serious tone that I had initially anticipated. Which wasn't a bad thing, but it took me a while to switch gears. That's why you should never have a predisposition about a book! I wasn’t expecting the prominent role that death played in this novel, I mean sure it’s about ghosts, but I was thinking more along the lines of happy times with Casper the friendly ghost, something more light-hearted. Anyhow, once I switched myself over to a mor...more
The premise of this book was really interesting, but it ended up just being another cliché- and angst-filled young adult novel. I would give it 2 1/2 stars if I could but I decided to round down because it's not quite a 3 star book.
Cass can see and talk to ghosts. Just before she got this ability she had a huge falling out with her best friend. The best friend, the most popular girl in the school, turned the entire student body of not one, but two schools, against Cass. Now that Cass has a few...more
Cass can see and talk to ghosts. Just before she got this ability she had a huge falling out with her best friend. The best friend, the most popular girl in the school, turned the entire student body of not one, but two schools, against Cass. Now that Cass has a few...more
10 likes · like · see review
Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
If there's one sentence that could sum up Cass McKenna's life, it would probably be that infamous line from the movie The Sixth Sense: "I see dead people."
Ever since Cass's big sister, Paige, drowned the night of her Junior Prom, Cass has had the gift - or curse - of being able to see ghosts. Or, to be technical, to see, hear, and communicate with spirits who haven't moved on to wherever spirits go after people die. The morning after her sister's death, Cass ma...more
If there's one sentence that could sum up Cass McKenna's life, it would probably be that infamous line from the movie The Sixth Sense: "I see dead people."
Ever since Cass's big sister, Paige, drowned the night of her Junior Prom, Cass has had the gift - or curse - of being able to see ghosts. Or, to be technical, to see, hear, and communicate with spirits who haven't moved on to wherever spirits go after people die. The morning after her sister's death, Cass ma...more
4 likes · like · see review
So lately i think i've been reading a lot of books involving ghost. I actually enjoyed Give Up the Ghost a lot more than I thought I would. Love the cover too :P
I liked Give up Ghost because it isn't your normal ghost story, it wasn't scary, the ghost weren't all like BOO!! I loved the characters.Cass, she is so brave and does this whole i'm cleaning out your closet thing.I mean she knows every bodies secrets( like cheating on BF & GF's,things you hope nobody would find out) thanks to her fr...more
I liked Give up Ghost because it isn't your normal ghost story, it wasn't scary, the ghost weren't all like BOO!! I loved the characters.Cass, she is so brave and does this whole i'm cleaning out your closet thing.I mean she knows every bodies secrets( like cheating on BF & GF's,things you hope nobody would find out) thanks to her fr...more
GIVE UP THE GHOST is a fantastic debut by author Megan Crewe. Not only is it a ghost story, but it is also an angsty coming of age story. Fans of the supernatural will apprectiate it as well those who lean towards the humans. This book is about fitting in and letting go of grudges and grief. It shows that sometimes people and things go away and we have to learn to accept this and move on with our lives and keep living them. If we don't we will constantly be haunted by the past and never be able...more
My book! :)
7 likes · like · see review
Cass McKenna from Give Up The Ghost by Megan Crewe has the dirt on everyone, she knows everybody's dirty little secrets. How? Well, she can interact with ghosts, who see everything. However, there is one little problem, some has discovered Cass's secret and now she must decide the value of interacting with humans for a change.
Read the rest of my review here
Read the rest of my review here
Apr 14, 2010
Jamie
is currently reading it
Give up the Ghost by Megan Crewe is a very unusual book. The plot is unlike many others that I have read, and although it is a bit of a page turner, it is not the best book ever written. The plot revolves around a single, independent girl and it stays like that through all 244 pages.
Cass McKenna, the main character, is a rare kind of person. She can see the dead people that still dwell on Earth. She didn’t always have this ability, but it came to her in an unfortunate situation. The morning af...more
Cass McKenna, the main character, is a rare kind of person. She can see the dead people that still dwell on Earth. She didn’t always have this ability, but it came to her in an unfortunate situation. The morning af...more
1 like · like · see review
I read and read and gobbled it up. I loved it. She softened Cass to a perfect degree that she was still a bundle of anger and frustration that I could relate to. I'd been a lot like Cass when I was in high school. Except Cass can see ghosts...and I kind of...can't.
Well.
Norris-the-ghost is just as awesome as ever and Bitzy-the-ghost is just cute and unitarded. Tim is a bundle of ill-coping dispair that makes your heart hurt through the pages for him even though there are no scenes in his POV. You...more
Well.
Norris-the-ghost is just as awesome as ever and Bitzy-the-ghost is just cute and unitarded. Tim is a bundle of ill-coping dispair that makes your heart hurt through the pages for him even though there are no scenes in his POV. You...more
I just finished putting this book down and my heart is aching with a mixed feeling of happiness at the ending, and sorrow that I am done reading it.
It's a truly delicious story about an outsider in high school, thanks to cruel tantrum-like revenge of an ex best friend. Cass deals the best she can with the help of the dead people she just happens to be able to see and talk to, including her older sister.
Despite the paranormal elements of the book, the story is real and contemporary and drew me i...more
It's a truly delicious story about an outsider in high school, thanks to cruel tantrum-like revenge of an ex best friend. Cass deals the best she can with the help of the dead people she just happens to be able to see and talk to, including her older sister.
Despite the paranormal elements of the book, the story is real and contemporary and drew me i...more
Deci, desi a fost o lectura usoara, nu pot sa spun ca e o carte foarte buna. Pagina dupa pagina asteptam sa se intample ceva cu adevarat interesant, dar nimic. In care este vorba despre Cass, o fata care vede fantome. Ea e genul de fata caruia nu-i pasa cum arata sau ce cred ceilalti despre ea. Chiar deloc. Are probleme in familie si se pare ca singurele ”persoane” cu care se intelege sunt sora ei moarta si doua fantome care bantuie scoala, Norris si Bitzy. Atunci apare Tim, un baiat super dragu...more
Jul 04, 2011
Liliana ♥s Mythology
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
ghosts-souls-spirits,
supernatural-abilities
Ever since the night her sister died, Cass has had the ability to see ghosts. Why? She has no idea. But the fact is the she gets along better with the dead then she does with the live people, which she likes to call “breathers.” I mean, what’s not to love about ghosts when they can find out everyone’s dirty little secrets!
Unfortunately for Cassie, it looks like one of the students from school has found out hers. Tim, VP of student council wants Cass to help him contact his deceased mother. She a...more
Unfortunately for Cassie, it looks like one of the students from school has found out hers. Tim, VP of student council wants Cass to help him contact his deceased mother. She a...more
Let me tell you how excited I was for this book; YA supernatural books have been intriguing me for a while now. With so many different authors and mediums out there ghosts (which you can tell by the title is what this book entails) have been shown in so many different lights. Megan Crewe instead takes ghosts somewhere else, they're not trying to scare people or anything of the like instead they essentially watch them and that's where Cassie (or Cass) comes in they tell her the dirty on people an...more
Cass McKenna este o liceană de 16 ani, ai cărei singuri prieteni sunt fantomele. După părerea ei, acestea sunt singurele în care poate avea încredere: fantomele nu au gânduri, ele spun cu voce tare tot ce gândesc. Cu ajutorul fantomelor de la școală, ea știe mizeriile tuturor celor de la școală, îi are la mână, așa că este lăsată în pace. Însă, într-o zi, Tim, vicepreședintele consiliului de elevi, a cărui mamă murise de curând, bănuiește că ea ar putea să-l ajute într-un fel să ia legătura cu m...more
This book is worth 4.5 stars. I really, really, REALLY liked it. The story was different, but done amazingly well. I was hesitant at first, mainly because it sounded like any other ghost story. However, this was one of the ghost stories done well. I recommend it for everyone :]
Aug 06, 2011
Justin
added it
One of the best surprises of a random novel pick up I have ever read. I wasn't completely sure if I would like this book like every novel I have picked up for the first time that does not relate to any other series but this one really entranced me from page one.
Cass is a quiet yet vengeful girl who gains the ability to talk and see the dead when her older sister had died from drowning. School life has been terrible for her since her former BFF turned against her and the rest of the school follow...more
Cass is a quiet yet vengeful girl who gains the ability to talk and see the dead when her older sister had died from drowning. School life has been terrible for her since her former BFF turned against her and the rest of the school follow...more
Aug 04, 2011
Anna
added it
Give Up the Ghost is the first novel published by Canadian author Megan Crewe, and its title has several layers of meaning. The protagonist, Cassandra McKenna, has been able to see ghosts since her older sister's drowning four years ago. She also harbors a grudge against her former (supposed) best friend, Danielle, who engineered Cass's fall into social obscurity after a seventh-grade falling out. Now a junior in high school, Cass finds a vicious pleasure in making public the secrets that her gh...more
Voy a empezar relatando los puntos en contra que le encontré a esta historia. Primero, creo que la historia de amistad-enemistad de Cass y Danielle es muy infantil. (view spoiler). En algunos momentos, el hecho de que estuviese narrado por la protagonista era algo denso, ya que se quejaba mucho de todos los pers...more
Cass McKenna is a loner in her high school, after an incident with her best friend in middle school that left her alone and friendless. She doesn't have any friends outside of two ghosts, Norris and Bitzy, who tell her everyone's secrets and "dirt".
Cass started seeing ghosts when her older sister, Paige, drowned when Cass was in middle school. Paige now lives in their house and talks to Cass, but since no one else can see her, Cass doesn't tell anyone.
Tim, VP of student council, realizes that so...more
Cass started seeing ghosts when her older sister, Paige, drowned when Cass was in middle school. Paige now lives in their house and talks to Cass, but since no one else can see her, Cass doesn't tell anyone.
Tim, VP of student council, realizes that so...more
I really wanted to like this book, and I did, just not as much as I hoped I would. The concept was cool, but I felt like the paranormal aspect of the story took a backseat to the relationships between the characters. Usually I wouldn't have a problem with that, but I wasn't that enchanted by the characters' personalities. Cass was way too obsessed with cracking through the poseurs perfect veneers. She had great motive, but the author didn't do a very good job at pulling it off. Tim was your ave...more
Plot: 3 Stars
Being a paranormal lover, my biggest fault with the book was the lack of paranormal. The ghosts just weren't the focal point the way I thought they were going to be. They were more of a grieving tool. I also sometimes felt the author would get sidtracked from the main plot of Cass helping Tim and bring up the past with Danielle. It was information the reader needed, but it wasn't always presented at the right time.
Pace: 3 Stars
For the most part, the book was a short and quick read....more
Being a paranormal lover, my biggest fault with the book was the lack of paranormal. The ghosts just weren't the focal point the way I thought they were going to be. They were more of a grieving tool. I also sometimes felt the author would get sidtracked from the main plot of Cass helping Tim and bring up the past with Danielle. It was information the reader needed, but it wasn't always presented at the right time.
Pace: 3 Stars
For the most part, the book was a short and quick read....more
The first sentence in this paranormal young adult novel (author Stephanie Crewe’s first book), is a classic attention-getter, the kind of first sentence every writer strives to produce.
“You would think it’d be easy to get along with a person after she’s dead.”
The next few sentences cinch it for the reader, succinctly telling her what she can expect from the story.
“Not Paige. She took her big sister duties very seriously. It’d been four years since she drowned, and she still got on my case.”
The...more
“You would think it’d be easy to get along with a person after she’s dead.”
The next few sentences cinch it for the reader, succinctly telling her what she can expect from the story.
“Not Paige. She took her big sister duties very seriously. It’d been four years since she drowned, and she still got on my case.”
The...more
Give Up the Ghost is an impressive debut. Give up the Ghost isn't just a "ghost story" filled w/ boo & spook.
Crewe's spectacular jaunt into Young Adult territory is a fascinating sojourn about a teenage girl as she struggles w/ teenage angst & blossoms into her own.
Crewe's flawless writing is displayed as Cass not only deals w/ but accepts her heartbreaking past.
Crewe knocks it out of the park w/ her authentic teen dialogue & situations ~ I wonder if Crewe is secretly a teen poising...more
Crewe's spectacular jaunt into Young Adult territory is a fascinating sojourn about a teenage girl as she struggles w/ teenage angst & blossoms into her own.
Crewe's flawless writing is displayed as Cass not only deals w/ but accepts her heartbreaking past.
Crewe knocks it out of the park w/ her authentic teen dialogue & situations ~ I wonder if Crewe is secretly a teen poising...more
Cass McKenna is one angry girl. Ever since she parted ways with her childhood best friend, she's been absolutely mean-spirited. Instead of trying to move on with her life, Cass is on a mission to tear down and make fools of her fellow classmates. Cass knows things about them that she definitely didn't witness first hand because she's able to communicate with ghosts. There are 3 ghosts that hang around her school and spy on her classmates for her. Anything they find out, Cass uses against them to...more
I liked this. It's not really ABOUT the ghosts...I liked that WHY Cass can see ghosts, and what she should DO about that isn't touched on at all, really. The book is more about moving on from loss and hurt and betrayal, about making new connections and trying to repair damage. Cass is all about revenge at the beginning, though she wraps it up as "truth". But by the end of the book she's learned some things about herself and her family and about a few folks from school, and she starts to open her...more
Cass's life hasn't been easy. In Junior high her BFF in fit of jealousy turned on her as did the rest of her class, her sister died and her parents thinks she crazy because she started seeing ghosts. She lied to them and they chose to believe the seeing ghost thing was just emotional stress of her sister's death. Having no friends in high school was not the easiest thing but thanks to her ghost friends who spy for her she is no longer a victim. She exposes people secrets and everyone is afraid o...more
1 like · like · see review
Pros: An interesting premise that hasn't been used in any of the many previous I-see-dead-people stories (using ghost friends' invisibility to spy on people). Also a serious topic is addressed: the kind of girl-on-girl bullying that is insidious and hard to catch anyone at but no less painful. The melodramatic and contradictory nature of the relationships between Cass and her parents and sister and between Cass and other students is fairly believable.
Cons: The "rules" of how ghosts work (they'r...more
Cons: The "rules" of how ghosts work (they'r...more
Cass has reasons to be standoffish and resent the kids at school: her mom is absent (literally, she's off on assignment all the time) her sister Paige is dead, and her so-called best friend made the entire school hate her.
But that's not all. Cass sees dead people. The ghost of her sister Paige hangs around and tells her to comb her hair. Ghosts at school tell her secrets about the popular folks so she can blackmail them.
But when one of the cool kids, Tim, starts stalking her, Cass has to come ou...more
But that's not all. Cass sees dead people. The ghost of her sister Paige hangs around and tells her to comb her hair. Ghosts at school tell her secrets about the popular folks so she can blackmail them.
But when one of the cool kids, Tim, starts stalking her, Cass has to come ou...more
Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe is a solid story of an outcast turned vigilante bent on revenge. It is filled with a bunch of likeable characters and I found the ghosts more interesting than the living characters but then again so did the protag Cass.
Cass was pushed out the popular ranks by her middle school bestie Danielle after a fit of jealousy. And when she starts outing everyone’s secrets the school begins to wonder about her. They can't figure out how she is getting her info. Maybe she is...more
Cass was pushed out the popular ranks by her middle school bestie Danielle after a fit of jealousy. And when she starts outing everyone’s secrets the school begins to wonder about her. They can't figure out how she is getting her info. Maybe she is...more
There are lots of teen paranormal romances out there, but Give up the Ghost, by Megan Crewe, stands a step apart from others that I’ve read, and a step above many. No vampires. No irredeemable cliques. No infinitely gorgeous males and adoring fans. The characters in Megan Crewe’s first novel seem surprisingly normal and familiar, apart from the minor detail that Cass sees dead people. And even that detail becomes absorbingly real as the story goes on.
Yes, there are ghosts, and no, there’s no dee...more
Yes, there are ghosts, and no, there’s no dee...more
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Like many authors, Megan Crewe finds writing about herself much more difficult than making things up. A few definite facts: she lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband and two cats (and does on occasion say "eh"), she tutors children and teens with special needs, and she has yet to make friends with a ghost, though she welcomes the opportunity. Her first novel, GIVE UP THE GHOST, was published b...more
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“For a guy who claimed not to be a stalker he sure knows the tricks of the trade.
Give up the Ghost”
—
27 people liked it
Give up the Ghost”
“You see? This is why you don't get mixed up in people's lives. Because the living are messy and complicated, and things end up going to hell one way or another, every time.”
—
21 people liked it
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