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Ghost Betweens
The spooky farm in the middle of suburban Citrus Valley has long been rumored to be haunted. After taking pictures in the abandoned fields, Josh Hart and his buddy, Zach, find the stories to be true. They want to learn more, and are joined in their quest by Zach's girlfriend, Kendra, and the new girl in school, Whisper Douglas. Josh and Whisper find they're not only drawn to each other, but they also have superpowers when it comes to the supernatural. Their history teacher proves to have an unusual knowledge of their powers, and guides them to better utilize their newfound talents. And they need all the help they can get when Zach and Kendra are possessed by a powerful demon at the farm, who plans to use the teens to escape her prison and take over the world. Now Josh and Whisper, the newest Ghost Betweens, not only need to save their friends, but the entire planet, as well.
279 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2012
3 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Eric J. Krause
11 books13 followersI am a speculative fiction author writing mainly YA books. I also have one adult horror book.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 19, 2013
I usually like my horror a bit more bloody and dark but for this I will make an exception. While not bloody it did have a dark edge to it. It was an easy read that allowed you to get to know the characters in increments as the book progressed. Some were better represented than others but you still had an idea of who they were in relation to each other. The reasons behind the haunting was never made completely clear but the story was still good even without knowing every detail. It was able to keep my interest and keep me turning pages wanting to find out what would happen next. The term Ghost Betweens was a new one on me and I think I like it, it seems very apt for the teens here.
Citrus Valley is located somewhere between Los Angeles and Orange County in California. There is a farmhouse just outside the town which is said to be haunted and no one can say how long it has been empty. The local kids don't party there and no one has even stayed for a night in the abandoned house, but it has a feeling that keeps people away. There is a sign out front which changes year to year or month to month and sometimes day by day, yet no one has ever been seen doing it.
Josh and Zach are high school boys who decide to go out and take pictures around the old farm and maybe capture some ghosts on film. They definitely get there wish and when the pictures are shown to one of their teachers he enlists them to continue their search for ghosts. They in turn bring into it Kendra, the girlfriend of Zach, and a new girl in school, Whisper who at first thinks she is joining a photography club. They wake up an evil that wishes to use them and they must race to master skills which will keep them alive and save more than their town from what could be released.
While light on scares it gives a nice story of young love blossoming in the face of horror. Finding the person who completes you before you are even complete yourself and learning to work together for the greater good. There was only one thing that bugged me and that was we never really got any answers about the teacher, like how he knew so much about ghosts, and spells, and evil entities, he was a history teacher after all. But that was a small thing and did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the story. This book is YA and so has no major heavy content.
Citrus Valley is located somewhere between Los Angeles and Orange County in California. There is a farmhouse just outside the town which is said to be haunted and no one can say how long it has been empty. The local kids don't party there and no one has even stayed for a night in the abandoned house, but it has a feeling that keeps people away. There is a sign out front which changes year to year or month to month and sometimes day by day, yet no one has ever been seen doing it.
Josh and Zach are high school boys who decide to go out and take pictures around the old farm and maybe capture some ghosts on film. They definitely get there wish and when the pictures are shown to one of their teachers he enlists them to continue their search for ghosts. They in turn bring into it Kendra, the girlfriend of Zach, and a new girl in school, Whisper who at first thinks she is joining a photography club. They wake up an evil that wishes to use them and they must race to master skills which will keep them alive and save more than their town from what could be released.
While light on scares it gives a nice story of young love blossoming in the face of horror. Finding the person who completes you before you are even complete yourself and learning to work together for the greater good. There was only one thing that bugged me and that was we never really got any answers about the teacher, like how he knew so much about ghosts, and spells, and evil entities, he was a history teacher after all. But that was a small thing and did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the story. This book is YA and so has no major heavy content.
May 22, 2012
Please note: This is my FULL review for this. I'm not going to post all of it on Amazon because I believe the author deserves the stars there without all of my editorial comments.
This is a great Indie YA book. It's well written. I didn't note many, if any, errors (I've just finished a long day and my mind is a bit zapped. Blame me for the poor, rambling review, not the author). The writing flowed well and was a quick, easy read. The characters were cute. It has a sweet romance to it and plenty of ghosts.
I believe the story is written in the past tense with a third-person limited narrative from Josh Hart's point of view (the tendency to do present tense these days kind of drives me bonkers so I like that this is past tense). There is no POV jumping and in most cases it very clear who is talking. Josh is a fairly typical teenager balancing studies with sports and friends. His voice isn't annoying to follow through the story as some main characters can sometimes be.
There is loads of action and a unique paranormal idea of "Ghost Betweens"--at least one I haven't come across (though I will admit I'm not terribly into ghosts).
[Beginning of Spoilers and/and Editorial Comments]
Regarding the characters: Whisper seemed like a fairly believable female. However, regarding the Kendra character, I found it a little confusing to reconcile what is "shown" for her versus what Josh "tells" us about her. i.e. She's supposedly easy going but I felt as if she was portrayed as being a bit jealous of her guy friend's interest in another girl. This could be my warped perception of the story. Occasionally I found myself irritated with their teacher, Mr. Baxter. Though we're dealing with paranormal/speculative fiction in this story, Baxter's breadth of knowledge was a bit odd and at times felt "convenient". Maybe I skipped over something that explained why that was. I was definitely annoyed with Josh's mom (but that was the point).
My one complaint about this book, which isn't really a complaint about the book at all, but rather how the book is marketed, would be that the majority of it is ruined in the product description (something I've done too but need to revise). Since this was a book I grabbed while it was briefly free, I didn't read the product description until I'd gotten about a quarter of the way through. I regretted it after because the pace things are revealed in the story are fairly slow and reading the description took away a good deal of the "magic" for me.
All in all, I'm glad I read it. I'm thrilled to leave a review.
This is a great Indie YA book. It's well written. I didn't note many, if any, errors (I've just finished a long day and my mind is a bit zapped. Blame me for the poor, rambling review, not the author). The writing flowed well and was a quick, easy read. The characters were cute. It has a sweet romance to it and plenty of ghosts.
I believe the story is written in the past tense with a third-person limited narrative from Josh Hart's point of view (the tendency to do present tense these days kind of drives me bonkers so I like that this is past tense). There is no POV jumping and in most cases it very clear who is talking. Josh is a fairly typical teenager balancing studies with sports and friends. His voice isn't annoying to follow through the story as some main characters can sometimes be.
There is loads of action and a unique paranormal idea of "Ghost Betweens"--at least one I haven't come across (though I will admit I'm not terribly into ghosts).
[Beginning of Spoilers and/and Editorial Comments]
Regarding the characters: Whisper seemed like a fairly believable female. However, regarding the Kendra character, I found it a little confusing to reconcile what is "shown" for her versus what Josh "tells" us about her. i.e. She's supposedly easy going but I felt as if she was portrayed as being a bit jealous of her guy friend's interest in another girl. This could be my warped perception of the story. Occasionally I found myself irritated with their teacher, Mr. Baxter. Though we're dealing with paranormal/speculative fiction in this story, Baxter's breadth of knowledge was a bit odd and at times felt "convenient". Maybe I skipped over something that explained why that was. I was definitely annoyed with Josh's mom (but that was the point).
My one complaint about this book, which isn't really a complaint about the book at all, but rather how the book is marketed, would be that the majority of it is ruined in the product description (something I've done too but need to revise). Since this was a book I grabbed while it was briefly free, I didn't read the product description until I'd gotten about a quarter of the way through. I regretted it after because the pace things are revealed in the story are fairly slow and reading the description took away a good deal of the "magic" for me.
All in all, I'm glad I read it. I'm thrilled to leave a review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 4, 2012
There's this old abandoned farm in the middle of endless suburbia, of *course* it's haunted! Josh humors his best friend Zach, who wants to get pictures, and finds more than he bargained for. When Mr. Baxter, their history teacher, finds out what they're up to, he surprises them with support and even better cameras. When Whisper, a new girl, transfers into their school, she and Josh hit it off immediately and find they have more in common than teen hormones! They learn they're Ghost Betweens, people with an affinity for ghosts, who always work in pairs. Mr. Baxter has to teach them what they need to know quickly, because the farm has its secrets... and its up to Josh and Whisper to save Zach and Kendra.
One thing that made this book stands out from a lot of other YA titles was that when the guy says or does that monumentally stupid thing that puts a big dent in the relationship, I didn't see it coming until it was already there. In others I've read, I saw it coming and actually stopped reading for a while because I didn't want to look. (Of course I did, eventually.) Thumbs up for that one!
The only drawback (for me) in this story was the high school itself. It seemed a little too easy-going, no cliques or bullies to navigate around or through. Not realistic in my experience. On the other hand, that's part of what makes it a good step up from the Goosebumps stories, the focus is on the supernatural horror instead of the real stuff. :-)
I think this book hits the sweet spot for readers age 13-16, and maybe a little older.
One thing that made this book stands out from a lot of other YA titles was that when the guy says or does that monumentally stupid thing that puts a big dent in the relationship, I didn't see it coming until it was already there. In others I've read, I saw it coming and actually stopped reading for a while because I didn't want to look. (Of course I did, eventually.) Thumbs up for that one!
The only drawback (for me) in this story was the high school itself. It seemed a little too easy-going, no cliques or bullies to navigate around or through. Not realistic in my experience. On the other hand, that's part of what makes it a good step up from the Goosebumps stories, the focus is on the supernatural horror instead of the real stuff. :-)
I think this book hits the sweet spot for readers age 13-16, and maybe a little older.
October 8, 2013
This was a pretty good story that is sure to pique the interest of preteens and teens. Being a little older than that (LOL!), I found it not quite as riveting as I would liked it to have been. Nevertheless, it was fun and sweet and fairly enjoyable, and, if you like scary ghosts, nice ghosts and evil demons, there were plenty of them as well.
I was a little surprised at one thing that happened in the book because it seemed so out of character for a YA novel. I won't say what it was for fear of divulging a spoiler, but it did kind of throw me for a loop for a bit when I read it because it was so unexpected.
There were a few editorial errors and a couple of places that dragged somewhat, but, all in all, I would still recommend this book to a young audience who are fans of ghost stories.
I was a little surprised at one thing that happened in the book because it seemed so out of character for a YA novel. I won't say what it was for fear of divulging a spoiler, but it did kind of throw me for a loop for a bit when I read it because it was so unexpected.
There were a few editorial errors and a couple of places that dragged somewhat, but, all in all, I would still recommend this book to a young audience who are fans of ghost stories.
May 20, 2013
Ghost betweens hooked me from the beginning. The relationship between the two main characters is fun to watch unfold. I rate books based on what type of reaction they create in me. Given that there were nights when I needed to get to sleep but felt I had to keep reading, I'm giving this one 4 stars.
June 17, 2013
It was ok, I finished it. It kept my interest,but it could have been better. The main characters seemed younger to me than 16,and i felt they could have showed more emotion.It was like they just went along with everthing that was happening to them without much of a reaction. I found the ending disappointing as well.
March 28, 2015
I loved this. It was really good, & such an easy read. Made me want to read something else by him.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews