You Can Never Go Home Again

Haunted #1

by Dyan Sheldon

When Angel and her mother move into a cottage on a cliff on Long Island, they find a ghost named BJ, who died during the '50s, already lives there. Part one of two.

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Ghosts, Paranormal

166 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Dyan Sheldon is the author of many novels for young adult readers, including the #1 New York Times bestseller CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN, which was made into a major motion picture. American by birth, she lives in North London.

Reviews

[Circa Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could fit right into the whole young adult paranormal romance trend thats huge right now if the author reissued and edited some references and terminology like Christopher Pike did with his 90s' teen vampire novels collected under Thirst vol. 1 and 2. What makes it original though is the witty, snappy, realistic dialogue and strong character development that recognizes the challenges of different phases of life and the relationships that come with them. All the characters are openly self-absorbed, flawed, and confused like real people. I especially loved how she wrote B.J.'s character to be this sort of insightful James Dean personality with the desire for isolation, snarky wit, and spontaneous nature. The only negative for me was the slow start, which revolved around Angel's whiny, narrow-minded view of her transition from Maryland to Long Island.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the first books that gave me the flutters as a teenager...

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ended up with the sequel to this, so I had to order this online. I feel like stories like this--young ghosts, 50s flavor, a bit of tragedy, etc.--were all over the place when I was younger, whether books or movies, so I'm not sure how this managed to slip past my radar. (There was even an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? that followed a similar storyline.) Anyway, this was fun and cute. It focused on the characters and their problems rather than drama or a bad guy. Dyan Sheldon is a good writer. I also loved the chapter titles that were the titles of oldies. Most people will probably hate the heroine, but I miss the days when authors could write a total brat rather than some generic Mary Sue. I'm looking forward to the sequel!

[Jeanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was SO AMAZING! I showed my mom "Hey mom, guess what book I'm reading?" Turns out, she told me "Ohh, I remember reading that book your age!" Which was very awesome!! I actually loved every part.

But, there was one thing that was getting to me. The main character, Angel, she was kind of annoying..which I get, since she is supposed to have a popular girl attitude (the stereotype of a popular girl), but I didn't like the way that she treated B.J., since all he was doing was just trying to help her and be nice to her, and try to make friends with her, since she was pretty lonely, but she was all b*tchy towards him. Which made me somewhat angry.

But, after I finished reading this, I was like "You know what? I want the next book, what is going to happen next? Will Angel finally shape up?!" Haha but this is definitely five stars! Good job Dyan.

*SPOILER*
Oh I forgot, me and my friend were both really disappointed that they did not kiss at the end, but, I'm like "Wait a minute, HE'S A GHOST?!" HAHA! But, maybe something will happen in the next book..
Save the Last Dance for Me

[AuroraIce]

Bookshelf reread.

I didn’t want to reread this one. I didn’t remember caring much for it the first time, I just knew the pair never managed to get along and it didn’t make sense that it was marked as a romance. There was no interest between them, only animosity, and I’m not big on old books. But I didn’t find a detailed summary review, and I figured rereading would be fine since it has so few pages.

It was more enjoyable than I remembered, though not enough that I want to keep it. It starts off where Angel Lister’s parents have gotten divorce, and for some reason her mom gets all the money from selling their house. They lived in a rich neighbor and went to private school, where Angel was the most popular and a trendsetter, so leaving that behind to go somewhere cheaper and different is hard for her.

Her brother Sean finds it exciting. I haven’t been able to determine their age difference. Angel complains the whole way, but feels hopeful as they pass some nice houses until they reach their cramped little cottage, as she views it. It’s supposed to be beach front, but that’s hardly a beach. Her mom thinks it has character, but after asking around, Sean learns it’s haunted and no one ever stays for long. He’s excited by that.

Angel hates everything about their new circumstances, especially how she has to do so much work and chores after living a carefree life before this point. And she’s not entirely wrong since apparently Sean doesn’t have to. Her mom wants to follow her dream to open and run a diner, and she’s invested all the money from their giant house into that, which is why they got the cheap house they did. Since she’s busy working, Angel always gets a list of chores so she feels like that’s all she ever does, and she also has to feed Sean. I don’t think anyone ever taught her how to cook, so it’s weird to get mad at her for lacking that skill set when it was never necessary or even featured in her life prior. Sean should be given chores too, but it doesn’t seem so.

Sean was right about the haunting, because B.J. still resides there. He lived there 30+ years ago, where you learn his hard life throughout the book. His mom died when he was really young, which matters to him but also he apparently didn’t realize at first that his step mom wasn’t his mom, but then later that seems like it was always obvious to him. She dislikes him, and his dad thinks he’s a waste of space. They dote on and spoil his younger brother, Danny, but B.J. thinks Danny deserves that treatment and pampers him too rather than grow jealous and resentful. He just put up with the mistreatment and never missed school because it was a retreat away from home, though he did get into trouble there sometimes.

Then, likely because of the spoiling, Danny started getting close with a bad crowd and causing trouble. B.J. always covered for him and took the blame, not that anyone would believe him if he tried to tell them what Danny was up to. One day he was with his friends after Danny dropped him off when someone came in and talked about earning money just to leave a door unlocked at this cornerstore, which indicates an intended robbery, and somehow B.J. just knows it’s Danny. He arrives as Danny’s friend is running and Danny’s staring in shock at the body of the cashier while holding a gun. When B.J. grabs it from him, Danny runs off.

It doesn’t explain in detail from there, you just know the newspapers said B.J. died in a motorcycle accident while freeing from a robbery after he murdered someone. So he took the blame for Danny. Not that he claimed it himself that time, but he seems content even as a ghost to let people keep saying he’s a killer. His dad disowned him and boarded off his room with everything inside, his stepmom told everyone she always knew he was a killer, and Danny was lauded a hero for stopping the robbery and you never get told how he felt about it. The family quickly left town after that. B.J. wanted them to be sorry if he died, even Danny, indicating depression, but when he did die, no one was sorry.

He doesn’t complain about this, and it seems like he accepted his bad life while it was happening. This does create a contrast between him and Angel, like he had it bad but silently endured while things aren’t as bad for her as she thinks but she complains and makes it works. That doesn’t mean her feelings don’t matter though, and I did spend the beginning on her side.

B.J. has spent all the years since terrorizing new owners out of the house. He’s it had free for a while now along with his ghost dog, Sparky, who cried for him for nights after his death until he angry dad took him to be put to sleep. His dad sounds the worst.

Angel thinks she can make friends and be popular at school, but it’s so different than her private school was and she quickly feels isolated. She starts walking around with a cold expression that makes others stay away from her. She wants to be around the popular crowd, so she ignores the girl who is nice to her, even though that girl seems to be friends with everyone and the “popular” girls aren’t.

Only certain types of people can see ghosts, such as the sensitive. That’s why Sean is able to start seeing B.J., who tries to avoid him at first. B.J. wants to mess with their mom until he sees her crying and considers how hard she’s working, that he likes her just fine as a person, and decides to leave her be and accept that family even though he’s disliked Angel from first sight.

Lonely people can also see ghosts. Angel hates her room, but gets excited when she realizes the attic is real and finds its boarded up entrance and breaks in to B.J.’s room. His stuff is old and dusty now, and she finds it gross and insults it. She starts cleaning it up to make it her new room, but he keeps putting stuff back. He has a good point about how she fails to see the value of his original edition Marvel comics. She gets fed up with that ghostly sabotage and her loneliness finally allows her to see him.

She’s not afraid, just angry. This is where I switched away from her side, because she was so entitled. Sure, he’s dead, but this has always been his home, his stuff is still here, and she starts saying this is her room and he needs to leave while he makes the same argument back. It was his first, so I feel he should win. Or they could coexist. Some of her other feelings, I still sympathize with, but she is so cruel about everything related to B.J. and his death and any suffering he went through. Largely because she’s supposed to have the stereotypical popular girl shallowness and is only starting to see beyond that.

Sean saves a lot of B.J’s stuff and invites him to be a roommate, so B.J. finally has to accept that. He’s never ventured past the yard before, and eventually decides to follow Angel to school, where he sees how secluded she is. He likes history, so when he tries to help her answer a question for the mean teacher but she refuses him, his pestering leads her to snap at him but the teacher thinks it’s at her and everyone laughs. She’s mortified and upset. She cries every night, and this makes it worse. But she later learns, thanks to the nice girl who hung out with her before but then grew angry when Angel ignored her at school but forgives her now, no one likes that teacher and everyone was laughing with joy that Angel yelled at her.

B.J. is willing to apologize but not say he did something wrong, but that’s still far more than Angel will do. He can compromise and she can’t. He also really likes the nice girl, Suze Adams, which Angel thinks is a crush. But he’s drawn to her just like Suze is drawn to the house and the haunting, so I wondered if she was Danny’s daughter or something with a different last name.

When Angel has to take Sean shopping for shoes, she gets invited to a party. Excited since she’s done nothing since moving here, she convinces Sean to let her use the shoe money to buy party clothes (even though she has tons of clothes these people have never seen and therefore doesn’t need new clothes) and she’ll pay him back with interest to buy shoes next time. Then she excitedly prepares for the rest of the night before realizing she can’t leave Sean alone and lashes out at him.

B.J. gets her to explain why she’s upset, and says he’ll babysit. He can touch things if he chooses (grabbing her is the only time Angel shuts up and thinks of him as a boy, which I don’t think is the ideal format for a love story), and he’s a much better cook that her. So she goes out to have a good time, but when she talks to a guy who’s interested, she worries over him seeing her house and judging her, so she ditches him and cycles home on Sean’s bike, but her mom is already there and yells at her for stealing the shoe money, leaving Sean alone, and being selfish.

Initially they both thought Sean was lying and being mentally concerning when he kept talking about the ghost, but Angel joined in after meeting B.J. and he became a banned topic. Now she points out that B.J. was watching Sean, so he wasn’t alone, and she’s been working like a servant since they moved here, and she didn’t steal the money, but her mom thinks it’s all excuses.

Even though her mom doesn’t believe in the ghost thing, the fact that it’s real puts me on Angel’s side, because she did opt out of going so she wouldn’t leave Sean but B.J. convinced her, and if both your kids are talking about it with full belief, maybe that warrants some consideration. She thought they were just suffering mentally because of the move and maybe she made a mistake, but when Angel brings the ghost up now, her mom thinks she’s lying for her own sake.

Angel gets super upset and stays in her room for days. B.J. tries to reason with her and say neither of them was wrong, which I guess is true but I’m still on Angel’s side for this, and her mom at least realized things haven’t been fair for Angel (why is she the only one doing chores? Sean is old enough to do plenty!), so she’s trying to make amends and talk, but Angel is done.

She packs her bag and leaves. Only B.J. knows and can’t talk her out of it so decides not to care. But there’s a hurricane warning. She uses all her savings for a bus ride home, and surprises her dad at his apartment, but he has a new girlfriend and is busy with other things, so he isn’t happy to see her like she hoped and tries to call her mom to send her back, but the phone is out. B.J. tells Sean to call his mom because Angel ran away, as he was expecting her to return quickly.

She goes to her best friend instead, who accepts her and says she can live there, but is on her way to a date. I think this is valid, but Angel feels betrayed and neglected, so she leaves to see her beloved boyfriend, but he’s off to see another girl. He should have said something before since they were writing each other. If he wanted to break up, make sure she knows. She realizes this place isn’t her home anymore, the new places is, but she’s out of money so decides to walk all the way back.

B.J. never rides his motorcycle in the rain, even when alive. He crashed his friend’s bike, not his own, but it was rainy that day and he only rode it to rescue Danny. He hasn��t ridden his own motorcycle since he died, but he pulls it out of the garage to ride in the rain now to save Angel.

She stops at a diner where the waitress gives her more food than she has money for, on the house. She’s always looked down on waitresses and dislikes that her mom became one. It’s weird. A boy starts talking to her, going to an Ivy league school, and offers her a ride. The waitress doesn’t approve, but Angel thinks she’s annoying. However, the boy decides the rain’s too heavy and he doesn’t wanna risk his car, which she understands cuz it’s an expensive car, but then he asks if she has money because he’s short on cash and only has enough for one room at a motel.

She’s never had to think about how people lie before, but she realizes it’s odd he’d have such a nice car but be poor. She opts to leave and he tries not to let her, then she runs into the road toward headlights and he drives off. The headlights belong to B.J. who came to get her and has to annoy her onto the motorcycle because she’s ready to walk and suffer out of spite. She gets on and they argue the whole time, the end.

When I first read this, I couldn’t find anything about the second book, so I thought it didn’t exist. But it does. Unfortunately it doesn’t have detailed reviews either, and I don’t plan to acquire it just to finish things. I’ll keep looking for a thorough review though, though I’ve heard it never actually does a real love story, with someone saying it makes sense since he’s a ghost, but he can touch anything he wants so I disagree. They don’t make sense as a couple though, as they both genuinely hate each other for who they are as people, failing to look beyond their own prejudices. So it’s not the funny hate-to-love type of story for me.

B.J. does learn to see more of Angel, but not to the extent where he likes her. He dislikes her for his prejudices, and then he learns more about her and dislikes her for who she is. She doesn’t make it easy to feel otherwise since she’s so miserable and vocal about it the whole time. She made me angry in those cases, but I can understand and feel for her most of the other times. I think B.J. had it worse though, and he deserves more sympathy than he ever got, and he clearly doesn’t trust sharing his experience with people who won’t understand. The closest he offers, Angel spurns, and that kind of thing horrifies me.

Also, B.J. winks too much. I don’t think one paragraph should have him winking with his words, and then the next should having him winking with his words.

She could always tell when he’d been reading her magazines, because he’d have a new phrase or suddenly want to talk about low-fat diets.

How long had she been standing there? Long enough to think that Angel had been screaming at a tree!

“She’ll think I’m crazy.”
“She knows you’re crazy. Just call her.”

“When girls with thick thighs model bathing suits. That’s when I’ll come down.” I just thought this line was fitting for now, since that’s exactly what happens. This book came out in the early 90s I think, so Angel only needed to wait 20-30 years to come down.

[Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally read this when I was much younger after borrowing it from the library. After inhaling it plus the sequel 'Save The Last Dance For Me' I ended up asking our local book store to import it in for me so I could have my own copy. I loved this series.
I'll admit it is not like a lot of the YA books that are being published at the moment. This book is really quite innocent, but they are still great and I still have them in my collection :)

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a much better book than I thought it would be. It was part coming of age story, part paranormal romance. Although I'm not sure I'd call Angel and BJs relationship a romance but it's at least a friendship. He really helps teach her that money isn't everything and what it really means to be a friend.

[Dawn Gehler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome read BJ is a ghost from 1959 haunting Angel who lives in his old house he led a rough life but died at the age of 19. He never could do anything to please his dad his mom died when he was little dad remarried had a child with new wife his little brother he would do anything for even die for???????.... . ......

[Brin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little trip down memory lane. I first read this book when I was in my teens. The story doesn't hold up quite as well as it did to me back then but still an enjoyable read.

3.5 stars but because I loved this so much when I was younger will round up to four.

[Mayo Misch · Rating 3 out of 5]

i think i was to old for this book. It was ok as a light read but the ending was not really an ending for me i felt like they forgot a couple of pages in my copy. I would recomend it for teens not over 15 maybe. But the writing and the idea did leave an impression on me.

[Joyce Lansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fun light read but will never go down as one of the great ones. The main character wasn't very likable, yet I found myself interested in staying with her throughout the novel. That in itself is a great accomplishment for an author--a sour character that the reader doesn't abandon.

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Part one of two" where I never bothered to seek out the second part. Not worth it.

[M.D. Laird · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book so many times when I was 12 or 13 and still loved it just as much. Ah, memories!

[theStorykeeper · Rating 3 out of 5]

CW: the dog is dead too

This was quite silly and fun, with just a touch of emotion. But the back of the book called this a romance. There was, like, 0.1% romance. Also, while Angel was totally spoiled, her mom was also unreasonable and demanding.

[Leilag · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this when I was 12, my first paranormal romance novel and I loved it.