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Jan 07, 2012

Rebekah rated it:

A terminally ill boy named Garth Hale is accidentally teleported to the afterlife before it is his time to go, and he is introduced to a world oddly similar to our own if you don t count skeleton nightmares, fortune-telling werewolves, and monstrous bugs. The supernatural beings populate Ghostopolis, moving amongst towering black and red skyscrapers, sprawling suburban neighborhoods, and stinking sulfurous caves. While the fantastic illustrations will keep you turning pages, the story is also More...

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Feb 14, 2012

Ethan rated it:

My genre du jour book is Ghostopolis. This book is a graphic novel, and it is very different to read than another type of genre. The comics make it different from other novels. This book is about a living boy who gets sucked into the afterlife and has to find a way to return to the living world. Meanwhile, the person who sucked him into the afterlife is trying to get him back to the real world. Apparently, his entry into the afterlife was a mistake. In addition, he finds out that the afterlife i More...

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Oct 26, 2011

Karissa rated it:

I picked this book up at the library on a whim and I am so glad I did. This was a wonderful story with some great illustrations. The story is meaningful, fun, and quirky all at the same time.

Garth is a kid with problems, he has a life-threatening condition that no doctor can solve. Imagine his surprise when he is accidentally zapped into the Ghost world by an accident prone ghost hunter. While there Garth learns he has fantastic powers and ends up facing off against Ghostopolis's e More...

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Oct 15, 2011

Lolene rated it:

Once I overcame my initial reluctance to delve into the world of graphic novels (see review of The Stonekeeper, Amulet series bk. 1), I knew I had to dive into Ghostopolis because it's one of the most popular books among the boys in my 6th grade classroom. It was brand-new last year, and it's already dog-eared and coming apart at the seams. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised. Doug TenNapel has written a story that I've never read before. A young boy, Garth Hale, gets sucked into the afterli More...

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Aug 27, 2011

Andrew Shuping rated it:

Frank Gallows is a washed up ghost hunter going about his daily job sending ghosts back to the ghost world. Garth is your average kid. Likes playing, like hanging out with skeletal horses...and oh yeah he's slowly dying of an incurable disease. And then the two worlds collide and Frank accidentally sends Garth into the ghost world. Garth must navigate the ghost world with the help of his grandfather Cecil's ghost until he can figure out his way back home. Frank teams up with his ex-fiance C More...

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Aug 10, 2011

Regina rated it:

Imagine God.
Now Imagine God as a 12 foot tall Tuskeegee Airman named Joe.
Now Imagine God, the Tuskeegee Airman named Joe, creating a place for all ghosts to dwell in six days.
Because of course on the seventh day, he rests.

The place he's built is called Ghostopolis, and all the types of the dead (live) there: Specters, Wisps, Bony Skeletons, Mummies and more. They reside in somewhat perfect harmony until a stranger named Vaughn appears and stirs up rumors and trouble be More...

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Jul 06, 2011

furious rated it:

somewhere between a 3 & 4 star book, i think. Doug TenNapel is an artist. amazing storyteller with brilliant comic timing. reading this really felt like watching a cartoon. part of that was the color, which is beautiful. Scholastic puts together a nice looking comic book.

in truth, this is an excellent book. it appeals to, & is appropriate for, a wide age range. it's fun, has lots of action, it's silly, it's scary (okay, it's not ever really that scary, and sometimes it's INCREDIBLY si More...

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May 02, 2011

Barky rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Apr 15, 2011

Brittany rated it:

Garth is terminally ill, but not dead yet. So it's not such a good thing when Frank Gallows accidentally send Garth to the afterlife along with a skeletal horse. Gallows now has to rekindle some old relationships in order to get Garth back and save his own job. While they're in the afterlife though, the new ruler Vaugner decides that Garth is a threat and what's to kill him. Garth has met up with his grandfather, who is Garth's age when they start their journey, and he tells Garth that the best More...

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Mar 05, 2011

Eden rated it:

Garth had just gotten home and was relaxing on his bed. Little did he know that he would not be home for long, let alone in this world.
Just next door was Frank Gallows, someone who works for the Supernatural Immigration Task Force and is responsible for tracking down ghosts and sending them back to the afterlife.

By accident when sending back one of the spirits Frank was tracking, Garth was also sent back.

Garth went to the afterlife with the spirit that was sent ba More...

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Feb 15, 2011

Tony rated it:

Frank Gallows is a sloppy but effective agent of the Supernatural Immigration Task Force, responsible for tracking down ghosts lingering on Earth and sending them back to the netherworld of Ghostopolis. One day he mistakenly sends terminally ill (but still living) 12-year-old Garth Hale to the afterlife, a grave error that means he has to follow and extract the kid. Unfortunately, no one's been successfully extracted in more than twenty years... Nonetheless, Frank follows the boy in and adventur More...

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Feb 11, 2011

Courtney rated it:

A young boy with an incurable disease is accidentally sent to the afterlife by a ghost hunter named Gallows. Understandably upset, his mother demands the Supernatural Immigration Task Force to make matters right. Gallows is fired and a rescue team is dispatched. Teller, in an effort to save his job, tracks down a former girlfriend with the ability to transport him to the afterlife to save the boy. In the meantime, the boy, Garth, is wandering about the afterlife, learning the history of Ghos More...

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Nov 25, 2010

Evan rated it:

I love Doug TeNapel's work, and was excited to see a full color book by him. Ghostopolis is a fairy tale of sorts. An officer in charge of sending ghosts back to the afterlife loses his badge when he accidentally sends a boy, who has a disease with no cure, into the ghost world, a place of spirits, skeletons and mummies and other creatures, which has been taken over by a shadowy figure.

In order to get the boy back, he enlists the help of his ex girlfriend, also a ghost. Meanwhile, the More...

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Nov 23, 2010

Aaron rated it:

TenNapel's latest graphic novel provides an interesting look at death and ghosthunting. Garth Hale is a young teen dealing with the fact tha the has a terminal illness. His mother has brought him to a number of doctors, but none of them have been able to offer him anything more than the usual diagnosis. Things really starts to get interesting when he has a run in with Frank Gallows, a ghosthunter for the Supernatural Immigration Task Force.

Gallows is initially on the hunt to capture Benedict More...

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Oct 24, 2010

Rosalia rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Oct 01, 2010

Nicola rated it:

Reason for Reading: I'm always intrigued by stories that take place in the "afterlife".

Frank Gallows is a ghost wrangler. He hunts down ghosts who've escaped the afterlife and sends them back but after 30 years on the job he's losing his touch, bored and plain grumpy with life. Sent to track down a night mare, the skeletal horse is on the run. As she goes through a wall, Frank shackles her and hit's the send button. Problem: on the other side of the wall the skeletal mare had More...

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Sep 11, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

Reviewed by Steph for TeensReadToo.com

Ghosts roam among the living on Earth, and it's up to Frank Gallows to go and catch them.

However, Frank isn't exactly the best guy for the task - he's lazy and messy and usually eats food in people's fridges after a successful catch. Nevertheless, he still gets the job done. That is, until he accidentally transports his ghost horse AND a human boy named Garth to Ghostopolis.

Now, it's up to Frank and his mysterious ex-fianc More...

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Dec 14, 2011

Ms. Rosas rated it:

I had to wait a little while to review this one because I had to let it sink in. I loved the story on so many levels. Yes it's often silly and there are more than one or two fart jokes but it's also deep and strangely moving. It's about life, death, pain, fear, and understanding.

Garth has a terminal illness, though we never find out what it is, and he isn't given much more time on this earth. Frank Gallows is a washed up investigator who is supposed to send ghosts back to the a More...

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Jul 21, 2011

Eryn rated it:

Some stuff that happened was just a little too convenient without any real explanation or closure to many of the questions presented by the novel. However, it's a graphic novel and a great way to get reluctant readers going!

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Feb 09, 2011

Jshifrin1 rated it:

Imagine a world were the afterlife is a known place like a vacation spot for dead people, and every person that dies goes there. Doesn’t that sound great? Well that is what the graphic novel Gohstopolis is about. Ghostopolis is a fantasy book that takes place in the modern world but the only difference is there is another realm that was built for the diseased it was supposed to be a comfortable paradise for all the dead, but sometimes there are ghosts who do not like it there and they fined a wa More...

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Aug 17, 2010

Mitchel rated it:

I'm surprised at how good this was. It looks kiddie, and is kinda kiddie, but the story is well thought out and the bad guys are enjoyably evil, and i just kinda loved it. Basically its the story of this kid, Garth, that finds himself in the afterlife. One problem, he's still alive. In this afterlife, there are seven kingdoms at the hub of which, Ghostopolis sits, all led by the evil Vaugner.

Whats really cool about it is the magic system. Basically humans in the ghost world don't a More...

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Apr 12, 2011

Becky rated it:

Despite what looks to be a light-hearted ghost story, with historical figures and skeletal remains of animals, this graphic novel had a few twists that gave it heart. The story centered on the little boy named Garth, who also faced a sad future not counting his accidental trip to the spirit world. In the spirit world, Garth got a chance to meet up with his grandfather, a man his mother never wanted to talk about. Together, the two try to figure a way to get young Garth back to his mother.
More...

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Feb 19, 2011

Leslie rated it:

the daughter really liked this one, and it is sure to be entertaining for the middle-grade audience. To me, it felt like a story resurrected from an attic box, a project of a 10-12 year old and his friend, with the art as a new addition. The art wasn't too cartoonish, which was great, but plenty of the antics were (thanks to the character Mr. Gallows), which is a source of its appeal. The lettering and coloring were excellent. The presentation (panel-wise)is pretty straightforward. A nice easy r More...

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Dec 18, 2011

Ashley rated it:

I am usually not one to gravitate towards graphic novels. This is actually the first one that I have read and I was presently surprised. I found that my past thoughts about graphic novels were false, that the pictures would distract me from the story and my imagination, but that was not the case. I found that I was more interested in the story because it had pictures. Some one reminded me once that we first learned from pictures so it is only fitting that we gravitate towards what is so comforta More...

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Aug 28, 2011

Renee rated it:

One day Garth was just minding his own business hanging out in his room, when a horse skeleton comes through his wall followed by Frank Gallows of the Supernatural Immigration Task Force-which is in charge of sending ghosts, nightmares and other creatures back to Ghostopolis (aka the afterlife) . In the midst of all the commotion Frank Gallows accidently sends not just the ghost horse skeleton, but Garth as well to Ghostopolis. So now Garth is stuck in Ghostopolis, surrounded by squirrel mummi More...

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Aug 28, 2010

Rebecca rated it:

I was kind of surprised I liked this since it's so not my genre--I hate skeletons and zombies and mummies and all that--and I only picked it up because it had gotten such good reviews. In any case, the genre is unavoidable these days in YA lit--zombies, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, fallen angels...etc. This one would be a good pair with Gaiman's 'Graveyard Book,' that won the Newbery--very similar in feel and subject.

But I liked it for several reasons. The graphics are as lovely as More...

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Nov 03, 2011

William Thomas rated it:

My book shelf "sleepers" isn't for books that will put you to sleep. Its for those books that I found randomly, that snuck up on me without any warning, without the hype and without any media coverage or frenzy. Ghostopolis falls into this category because it was an underdog that crept up on me and knocked me for a loop.

In a heavyweight contest of young adult graphic novel brilliance against the almighty Bone, it wouldn't take the strap. But it is a contender. Everything a More...

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Mar 13, 2011

Jessica rated it:

Garth is a boy with an unnamed but incurable disease who one day gets accidentally transported to the afterlife by a lazy ghostbuster with a reputation for shoddy work. Now Garth is stuck in Ghostopolis with no way back home before he's even dead yet. He makes friends with a skeleton horse, which is really cute. The ghostbuster responsible for this mix-up follows Garth to the afterlife to Ghostopolis to try to rescue him, but unsurprisingly the rescue attempt is botched and they have a few sl More...

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Nov 11, 2011

Ms. Library rated it:

This had the same kind of charm as Gaiman’s work. Its about a young boy with a terminal illness who gets accidentally zapped into the ghost world. He meets his grandfather, and he rides a skeleton horse, and he has to figure out how to battle the person who rules Ghostopolis while also finding a way back into the real world. Meanwhile, the ghost-hunter who zapped him back, Frank Gallows, is searching for him with his ghost ex-lady love. The art style is fantastic, and the story is entertaini More...

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Oct 29, 2011

Patrice rated it:

4.5 stars! A young boy is accidentally sucked into Ghostopolis, a sort of limbo world for the dead where you can find skeletons, mummies, zombies and all other sorts of odd, usually dead, creatures. The characters really shine here, even the ones that don't speak at all. Ghostopolis boasts the strongest, most varied and interesting characters across the entire graphic novel that I've read in a long time.

There are some spooky parts, and a touch of violence, though my 10-year-old (who More...

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