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Ghost Medicine
The summer before Troy Stotts turns seventeen, his mother dies. Troy and his father barely speak, communicating instead by writing notes on a legal pad by the phone. Troy spends most of his time with his closest friends: Tom Buller, brash and fearless, the son of a drunk; Gabe Benavidez, smart enough to know he’ll never take over the family ranch; and Gabe’s sister, Luz, whose family overprotects her, and who Troy has loved since they were children.
Troy and his friends don’t want trouble. They want this to be the summer of what Troy calls “ghost medicine,” when time seems to stop, so they won’t have to face the past or the future. But before the summer is over, their paths will cross in dangerous and fateful ways with people who will change their lives: Rose, a damaged derelict who lives with a flock of wild horses and goats; and Chase Rutledge, the arrogant sheriff’s son.
Troy and his friends want to disappear. Instead, they will become what they least expect —brothers, lovers, heroes, and ghosts.
Troy and his friends don’t want trouble. They want this to be the summer of what Troy calls “ghost medicine,” when time seems to stop, so they won’t have to face the past or the future. But before the summer is over, their paths will cross in dangerous and fateful ways with people who will change their lives: Rose, a damaged derelict who lives with a flock of wild horses and goats; and Chase Rutledge, the arrogant sheriff’s son.
Troy and his friends want to disappear. Instead, they will become what they least expect —brothers, lovers, heroes, and ghosts.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2008
31 people are currently reading
980 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Smith
19 books1,703 followersAndrew Smith is the author of Winger, Grasshopper Jungle, The Alex Crow, 100 Sideways Miles, and Rabbit & Robot, among others. Exile from Eden: Or, After the Hole, the long-awaited sequel to Grasshopper Jungle, is coming from Simon & Schuster on September 24, 2019.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
July 27, 2022
"Three boys rode up there.
Not one of them came back.
Maybe all boys die like this."
Troy Stotts knows loss. The summer of his mother's death, he runs off to the mountains with his thoroughbred horse to escape the ghosts that follow him. That mountain transforms people. When Troy returns, he spends the summer growing into a stronger person—a person not afraid to stand up for himself and those that he loves.
His best friends are like brothers to him. Tom Buller is a tough, coyote-grinning, tobacco-spitting guy that shakes off misfortune like it doesn't even bother him. Gabriel Benavidez is the skittish, backwards-glancing rancher's son who tries so hard to be someone good enough. These two would do anything for Troy, even if it meant getting into serious trouble. Troy would do the same in return. And they do.
These boys are good boys, always working on the ranch and helping out people in need. But even the best of people have enemies, miserable people that just want to see these good boys crumble. Chase Rutledge is the sheriff's son. Constantly pestering Troy and losing fights to Tommy fills him with this ugly desire to get even. Even if that means killing someone.
This is the summer of ghost medicine, the summer where parts of everyone are lost, where parts of everyone grow up and develop. It is the summer of friends, heroes, enemies, and blood.
The summer of horses and rattlesnakes, and mountain lions and guns, of rain and the rider number seven, of secret kisses and of straight lips, of the giddy bonfires and the silent orchard of the ghosts, of beer, whiskey, and tobacco, of grieving and of accepting. The summer of losing. The summer of growing.
There is something about Ghost Medicine that doesn't compare to any other book. It is so genuine and raw. There's no holding back on the triumph and pain that emerges from these people. And no other story reflects love as deep as this one. There are so many unspoken definitions of love throughout this summer. It isn't just romantic. It can also happen between friends, between family, between the deceased. It means I care so deeply about you that I will do everything I can to keep you safe and happy. It means longing, joy, heartache, and sacrifice. I find that to be stunning.
I'd recommend this book to patient readers, ones that enjoy subtle rural stories like this. I've heard many people say they just can't get into the book, but I was completely hooked on page 1, so I guess it really depends on the reader and what you're interested in. Smith's execution of emotion is the best I've ever read, leaving me in tears every time I read it, even when I know what's coming.
Ghost Medicine is my absolute favorite book, and probably will be forever.
"And we all three, painted and worn, made our way back along the creek to that little bridge. And along the way we talked about Tommy's difficult horse, that Goat Woman and her twenty-four-pound cat and the horses we'd be getting from her soon, and Gabriel's older sister. And then Tommy grinning and pretending that he couldn't see me and Gabe anymore because we had disappeared.
And as we walked through the woods, wet past our knees, Tommy waved his hands in the air, smiling and acting like he was trying to feel where his invisible friends had gone."
Not one of them came back.
Maybe all boys die like this."
Troy Stotts knows loss. The summer of his mother's death, he runs off to the mountains with his thoroughbred horse to escape the ghosts that follow him. That mountain transforms people. When Troy returns, he spends the summer growing into a stronger person—a person not afraid to stand up for himself and those that he loves.
His best friends are like brothers to him. Tom Buller is a tough, coyote-grinning, tobacco-spitting guy that shakes off misfortune like it doesn't even bother him. Gabriel Benavidez is the skittish, backwards-glancing rancher's son who tries so hard to be someone good enough. These two would do anything for Troy, even if it meant getting into serious trouble. Troy would do the same in return. And they do.
These boys are good boys, always working on the ranch and helping out people in need. But even the best of people have enemies, miserable people that just want to see these good boys crumble. Chase Rutledge is the sheriff's son. Constantly pestering Troy and losing fights to Tommy fills him with this ugly desire to get even. Even if that means killing someone.
This is the summer of ghost medicine, the summer where parts of everyone are lost, where parts of everyone grow up and develop. It is the summer of friends, heroes, enemies, and blood.
The summer of horses and rattlesnakes, and mountain lions and guns, of rain and the rider number seven, of secret kisses and of straight lips, of the giddy bonfires and the silent orchard of the ghosts, of beer, whiskey, and tobacco, of grieving and of accepting. The summer of losing. The summer of growing.
There is something about Ghost Medicine that doesn't compare to any other book. It is so genuine and raw. There's no holding back on the triumph and pain that emerges from these people. And no other story reflects love as deep as this one. There are so many unspoken definitions of love throughout this summer. It isn't just romantic. It can also happen between friends, between family, between the deceased. It means I care so deeply about you that I will do everything I can to keep you safe and happy. It means longing, joy, heartache, and sacrifice. I find that to be stunning.
I'd recommend this book to patient readers, ones that enjoy subtle rural stories like this. I've heard many people say they just can't get into the book, but I was completely hooked on page 1, so I guess it really depends on the reader and what you're interested in. Smith's execution of emotion is the best I've ever read, leaving me in tears every time I read it, even when I know what's coming.
Ghost Medicine is my absolute favorite book, and probably will be forever.
"And we all three, painted and worn, made our way back along the creek to that little bridge. And along the way we talked about Tommy's difficult horse, that Goat Woman and her twenty-four-pound cat and the horses we'd be getting from her soon, and Gabriel's older sister. And then Tommy grinning and pretending that he couldn't see me and Gabe anymore because we had disappeared.
And as we walked through the woods, wet past our knees, Tommy waved his hands in the air, smiling and acting like he was trying to feel where his invisible friends had gone."
June 23, 2008
For 30 years, I've called GHOST MEDICINE author Andrew Smith my friend. We wrote for our high school newspaper together, and we were the best kind of best friends.
We lost contact for a time, but once the friendship was renewed, I asked him, "Where is the novel?"
"What novel?" he said.
GHOST MEDICINE was the eventual answer to my continued prodding. It is a tender and serious work of fiction, as I'd secretly supposed.
To begin to understand the story of 16-year old Troy Stotts before you've read the novel, picture a Gary Paulsen character on horseback. Then add a new kind of solitude -- the kind that reflects a coming of age urgency, a yearning of intensity -- with room for love and friendship, but just barely.
After Troy's mother dies, he and his father (a teacher like Smith himself), slip away from each other. Grieving her death and the earlier death of Troy's brother, they find communication too painful to endure. Short scratches on a legal pad hold the essentials in place, but the gulf between them is vast and growing. Troy turns, instead to the wilds of his rural California home, his faithful horse, and two cowboy friends, Gabe and Tom. A little further removed is Gabe's sister, Luz -- a girl Troy says he's loved for as long as he can remember.
Unapologetically. Smith offers in GHOST MEDICINE a story written by a real man, for real young men. But don't expect stereotypical displays of testosterone. Troy and his friends don't have all the answers -- not when they hunt for a dangerous mountain lion, not when they try to protect a herd of wild horses, not even when they come up against the town sheriff's delinquent son, Chase Rutledge, time and time again.
What they do have are the true and deeply felt emotions of authentic and diverse young men, and all the complications that go with them. Set against an environment Smith has made real though vivid, sensory description, GHOST MEDICINE steers clear of bells and whistles in favor of simplicity and character. Readers who long for a book with relationship will find a friend in GHOST MEDICINE. Doubtless other friends will surface as Smith moves forward in his new and promising literary career.
We lost contact for a time, but once the friendship was renewed, I asked him, "Where is the novel?"
"What novel?" he said.
GHOST MEDICINE was the eventual answer to my continued prodding. It is a tender and serious work of fiction, as I'd secretly supposed.
To begin to understand the story of 16-year old Troy Stotts before you've read the novel, picture a Gary Paulsen character on horseback. Then add a new kind of solitude -- the kind that reflects a coming of age urgency, a yearning of intensity -- with room for love and friendship, but just barely.
After Troy's mother dies, he and his father (a teacher like Smith himself), slip away from each other. Grieving her death and the earlier death of Troy's brother, they find communication too painful to endure. Short scratches on a legal pad hold the essentials in place, but the gulf between them is vast and growing. Troy turns, instead to the wilds of his rural California home, his faithful horse, and two cowboy friends, Gabe and Tom. A little further removed is Gabe's sister, Luz -- a girl Troy says he's loved for as long as he can remember.
Unapologetically. Smith offers in GHOST MEDICINE a story written by a real man, for real young men. But don't expect stereotypical displays of testosterone. Troy and his friends don't have all the answers -- not when they hunt for a dangerous mountain lion, not when they try to protect a herd of wild horses, not even when they come up against the town sheriff's delinquent son, Chase Rutledge, time and time again.
What they do have are the true and deeply felt emotions of authentic and diverse young men, and all the complications that go with them. Set against an environment Smith has made real though vivid, sensory description, GHOST MEDICINE steers clear of bells and whistles in favor of simplicity and character. Readers who long for a book with relationship will find a friend in GHOST MEDICINE. Doubtless other friends will surface as Smith moves forward in his new and promising literary career.
October 25, 2009
I had a hard time getting into this book; in the beginning it was very difficult to tell what was happening and when. The past and present seemed to be represented at the same time. It is also one of those books that is a tragedy and the author lets you know right away what is going to happen. I usually don't like books like that. But I decided to give it a chance anyway because he is a local author. I was horribly disappointed. Here is another book that has only one female character who causes the sad and useless tragedy to happen in the first place. It is not the stupidity of the boys, their selfishness, drinking, or stoic silence that causes the problem, oh no. Of course it is the woman and her body that cause all the sadness and death. And worse it is not because of anything that she has done (other than think that she is as good as a man) but what the men around her do to "protect" her. And the author didn't let us know that that was the way it was to be until the very end, thanks. I would recommend not wasting your time.
June 11, 2011
I've read three of Andrew Smith's books now. I think this might be my favorite. It's quieter than The Marbury Lens, and less action-oriented than In The Path Of Falling Objects.
It's just a quiet story about three boys who go up a mountain and never return. Saying any more than that would be a disservice.
It's just a quiet story about three boys who go up a mountain and never return. Saying any more than that would be a disservice.
November 29, 2017
Livrão da p*rra!
Eu sou suspeito pra falar, porque adoro o Andrew Smith e leria qualquer coisa que ele escrevesse. Mas esse livro é maravilhoso demais!
Não dá pra falar muito sobre a história sem dar spoiler, então digo apenas que o livro fala sobre amadurecimento, sobre crescer e se tornar adulto. Eu tenho uma paixão enorme pela narrativa do Andrew porque ele tem a capacidade de colocar sentimento em cada palavra, e esses sentimentos sempre me atingem com uma força bastante incomum. É muito difícil que um livro faça isso comigo, mas com os livros dele eu já sei que isso sempre vai acontecer.
Então, mesmo que o cenário da história esteja o mais longe possível da minha realidade, afinal o enredo se passa em meio a fazendas e caubóis e armas e animais, eu consigo me enxergar no que é contado. E acho sinceramente que não é difícil que isso aconteça com qualquer pessoa que o leia.
A narrativa de crescimento dos personagens, os quais são todos muito bem definidos em suas características, é bem crível e tocante. Torcer por eles e viver as angústias de todos é algo real durante a leitura.
Eu amei demais. Amei a velocidade da história, que é lenta, mas li em poucos dias. E amei cada pedacinho de aprendizado que tive com ela. Mais um livro pra eu ter certeza absoluta de que Andrew Smith é um dos meus autores favoritos e uma grande inspiração com seu estilo de escrita que é incomparável. Quero ser igual a ele quando crescer!
Eu sou suspeito pra falar, porque adoro o Andrew Smith e leria qualquer coisa que ele escrevesse. Mas esse livro é maravilhoso demais!
Não dá pra falar muito sobre a história sem dar spoiler, então digo apenas que o livro fala sobre amadurecimento, sobre crescer e se tornar adulto. Eu tenho uma paixão enorme pela narrativa do Andrew porque ele tem a capacidade de colocar sentimento em cada palavra, e esses sentimentos sempre me atingem com uma força bastante incomum. É muito difícil que um livro faça isso comigo, mas com os livros dele eu já sei que isso sempre vai acontecer.
Então, mesmo que o cenário da história esteja o mais longe possível da minha realidade, afinal o enredo se passa em meio a fazendas e caubóis e armas e animais, eu consigo me enxergar no que é contado. E acho sinceramente que não é difícil que isso aconteça com qualquer pessoa que o leia.
A narrativa de crescimento dos personagens, os quais são todos muito bem definidos em suas características, é bem crível e tocante. Torcer por eles e viver as angústias de todos é algo real durante a leitura.
Eu amei demais. Amei a velocidade da história, que é lenta, mas li em poucos dias. E amei cada pedacinho de aprendizado que tive com ela. Mais um livro pra eu ter certeza absoluta de que Andrew Smith é um dos meus autores favoritos e uma grande inspiração com seu estilo de escrita que é incomparável. Quero ser igual a ele quando crescer!
April 2, 2019
The book is pretty good and I really liked it. The main characters name is Troy. The book started with Troy traveling into the woods, after he stayed up there in a cabin for a little while his crush Liz found him and she convinced him to come home with her. I don't know how she found him but she did. Once he came back they had a problem with a mountain lion but they killed it.
After they killed it they buried the mountain lion and had a mini funeral for it. Troy was offered a job by Mr. Benavidez to work on his horse ranch, where Troy had originally had gotten his horse. Shortly after he had the job, Mr. Benavidez told him not to date his daughter. Troy being the teen he is he did the exact opposite, he hung out with her and he kissed her. About a month after he got the job he entered into a horse biathlon that his city had every year and he came in second. So far the book is pretty good and it is interesting.
After they killed it they buried the mountain lion and had a mini funeral for it. Troy was offered a job by Mr. Benavidez to work on his horse ranch, where Troy had originally had gotten his horse. Shortly after he had the job, Mr. Benavidez told him not to date his daughter. Troy being the teen he is he did the exact opposite, he hung out with her and he kissed her. About a month after he got the job he entered into a horse biathlon that his city had every year and he came in second. So far the book is pretty good and it is interesting.
September 24, 2016
(FROM MY BLOG) Troy, Gabe, and Tom are three teenaged friends, living in ranch country, somewhere in California, probably. Some place where open pastures have been carved out of redwood forests.
Tom, the joker, the trickster, the coyote. Gabe, the shy, sensitive boy, the kind one, the saintly one. And Troy, the silent narrator, the brooding philosopher.
Troy's dad and Gabe's dad had been best friends as kids. As adults, they still called themselves close friends, but, as Troy tells us, they are polite with each other like "members of the same stamp club or something."
Tom, the joker, the trickster, the coyote. Gabe, the shy, sensitive boy, the kind one, the saintly one. And Troy, the silent narrator, the brooding philosopher.
Troy's dad and Gabe's dad had been best friends as kids. As adults, they still called themselves close friends, but, as Troy tells us, they are polite with each other like "members of the same stamp club or something."
[B]oth of those men just seemed to me like they never wanted to show how things really affected them, and it always made me wonder about the cost of growing up.
Andrew Smith's earliest novel, Ghost Medicine, is about many things. It's about the silence of the open spaces and of the people who live and ranch there. It's about friendship. It's about caring for the horse who is both friend and transportation, about protecting cattle and goats from predators, about the way the sun reflects from nearby granite peaks at a certain time of day. It's about Troy's theory that what happens, happens; that you can look back and sometimes see how you caused events to happen, but can never know in advance how an act will "ripple like the surface of a pond once a rock has been skipped," disturbing everything it touches.
But it's also about the "cost of growing up."
Troy, Gabe, and Tom have very different personalities. They aren't given to rambling conversations with each other. They tease. They speak by staying silent, by joking, by spitting tobacco, by changing the subject. Several women or girls, commenting on the novel on Goodreads, denounce the story as just one more irritating example of guys who never even talk to each other, and just go through life oblivious. But these three guys know each other, and each other's moods, and each other's feelings better than they'll ever know anyone again in their lives. They don't need to speak in complete sentences to communicate their ideas or their emotions.
Troy falls in love with Luz, Gabe's older sister. Their mutual love is another central theme of the book, but it never overwhelms the story as it might in too many young adult novels. Luz, too, is from the ranch community, and they understand each other.
As the novel moves into its second half, its mood darkens. Small incidents, especially conflicts with the thuggish son of the local sheriff, "ripple" outward, threatening the quiet lives of Troy and his friends. The boys make decisions -- which, in retrospect, prove to be poor decisions. They ride together up into the hills, chasing the sheriff's son and his equally thuggish friend.
We had been warned of disaster from the very beginning, and disaster has been foreshadowed throughout the novel. Not everyone comes back down alive. And those who do return are no longer the same boys.
But all three boys had been changing throughout the novel, changing as they reacted to their experiences. They had been losing their boyhoods, becoming -- for better or for worse -- men. Much earlier, Troy had spun a theory that every animal had a form of "medicine," and that the blood from a cougar they had just killed provided them with "ghost medicine" -- medicine that made you invisible to the eyes of others. Much later, he muses --
I told Gabriel that ghost medicine was everything we could ever want; that it was more powerful than we knew, more than we could reckon with. And in the end, I guess, it did make us disappear. But it wasn't like a cheap illusion in a magic show, because we didn't realize that it took us in pieces, not all at once, and others could see those bits vanish away and I, we, could only feel them in ourselves, thinking all the time This is what I want, this is what I want, until those lost pieces revisit us in dreams and make us thrash and grab for them only to swish our sweaty, empty hands in the air.
The fears, the guilt, and the desires of the surviving boys cost them the innocence of their childhood, leaving them as adults. Adults, kind of like their dads.
Troy, Gabe, and Tom are three kids with -- compared to suburban kids -- an enormous amount of independence, self-sufficiency, and competence. They cuss, they drink, they chew tobacco. They have easy access to guns -- an access that is necessary for people on a ranch, but an access that invites tragedy. During summer, when the novel takes place, they are largely on their own -- they have no "helicopter parents."
And they happen to be three of the most decent, kind, and "good" kids that you're apt to read about in today's literature. Which is why so much of what happens hurts so much.
Three boys rode up there.
Not one of them came back.
Maybe all boys die like that.
Many young readers found the pace of the novel too slow, the descriptions too detailed. They are used to more "action." For those with the ability to savor the slow, quiet pace of outdoors life, I highly recommend this book.
March 7, 2017
Andrew Smith sure can write. I was a bit put off by how the book started (just stylistically) but the story was great. It's a coming of age novel about three boys. Read it. You won't regret it.
November 16, 2011
My biggest issue with this book is that the author tells you at the beginning that three boys die on the mountain. I spent the whole book waiting to see which of the three friends wasn't going to make it because I was pretty sure that two of them were going to survive.
Other than that, I didn't really connect with the characters until about halfway through and even then it was tenuous. It was probably the narrator. He just didn't sound like a teenager and he didn't really have much inflection. Also, I was probably expecting something different from this book than a more modern young adult western. It would probably be a good read for a teen guy though.
There is tobacco use (maybe underage, not sure if chewing tobacco counts the same way), underage alcohol use, some kissing and touching though nothing beyond unbuttoning a girl's shirt. There is discussion about sleeping with that girl though. Several people are killed, a couple of people are shot, some one is bitten by a snake, an animal is killed by arrows, another is killed by guns, and a horse breaks some one's leg. There is quite a bit of cursing, but the f-bomb is not used. There is also a cop who can't seem to see that his son isn't a saint and takes it out on Troy.
Other than that, I didn't really connect with the characters until about halfway through and even then it was tenuous. It was probably the narrator. He just didn't sound like a teenager and he didn't really have much inflection. Also, I was probably expecting something different from this book than a more modern young adult western. It would probably be a good read for a teen guy though.
There is tobacco use (maybe underage, not sure if chewing tobacco counts the same way), underage alcohol use, some kissing and touching though nothing beyond unbuttoning a girl's shirt. There is discussion about sleeping with that girl though. Several people are killed, a couple of people are shot, some one is bitten by a snake, an animal is killed by arrows, another is killed by guns, and a horse breaks some one's leg. There is quite a bit of cursing, but the f-bomb is not used. There is also a cop who can't seem to see that his son isn't a saint and takes it out on Troy.
September 13, 2014
YA western.
I wish the author or editor or copy editor knew the rules for using commas. Worse confusion came from the author's transitions--or lack of them. The story would be moving along for a page or two, there'd be a double line break, and either a flashback or a dream or a continuation of the scene but with no transitional phrases whatsoever, so a reader has no idea of where these new sections are for at least several lines... and maybe never. After struggling through that, I finally came to a conflict with cardboard bad guys where the good guys made incredibly stupid decisions in the face of badness, so I thought it really wasn't worth all that struggle I'd had with trying to locate myself in time and space to get to that. The good guy characters are interesting (except the girl, who is just there to adore the main character).
All in all, frustrating. It felt like there was the talent and imagination for a good book but not yet a good book.
I wish the author or editor or copy editor knew the rules for using commas. Worse confusion came from the author's transitions--or lack of them. The story would be moving along for a page or two, there'd be a double line break, and either a flashback or a dream or a continuation of the scene but with no transitional phrases whatsoever, so a reader has no idea of where these new sections are for at least several lines... and maybe never. After struggling through that, I finally came to a conflict with cardboard bad guys where the good guys made incredibly stupid decisions in the face of badness, so I thought it really wasn't worth all that struggle I'd had with trying to locate myself in time and space to get to that. The good guy characters are interesting (except the girl, who is just there to adore the main character).
All in all, frustrating. It felt like there was the talent and imagination for a good book but not yet a good book.
April 16, 2016
A Cura Invisível e A Lente de Marbury se complementam, de certo modo. Este é um livro pra vc apreciar com calma, passado em ranchos entre cavalos, com os personagens nadando em lagos, acampando em montanhas. Há certa conexão com a natureza, embora a história gire em torno da amizade de três carinhas, e o amor do protagonista pela irmã de um deles. Nada aqui acontece com pressa, mesmo as ameaças, os vilões, são plantados com calma, para os problemas que causam serem colhidos adiante. É um desses livros que daria um belo filme, o único porém sendo a ausência de uma personagem feminina mais forte.
Foi interessante ler esse livro após Marbury, pq Marbury é o extremo oposto. Frases curtas, ritmo acelerado, muito urbano, muito violento e brisadíssimo. Mas também apoiado na amizade entre homens jovens, que parece ser a marca registrada do Andrew Smith. Meu próximo alvo do autor será A Metade Silenciosa.
Foi interessante ler esse livro após Marbury, pq Marbury é o extremo oposto. Frases curtas, ritmo acelerado, muito urbano, muito violento e brisadíssimo. Mas também apoiado na amizade entre homens jovens, que parece ser a marca registrada do Andrew Smith. Meu próximo alvo do autor será A Metade Silenciosa.
June 20, 2008
I've always been drawn to America's rugged cowboy culture. Having grown up in the lowlands by the North Sea, the American West seemed worlds away. It was. And it still is. But through Ghost Medicine, I feel I have lived it. Smith brings that experience to life in such a rich, sensory and even seductive way, that I felt I was riding a horse along with Troy, Gabe and Tommy.
I was happy Smith prepared us for what was to come (sort of), because it would have broken my heart otherwise.
A great read.
I was happy Smith prepared us for what was to come (sort of), because it would have broken my heart otherwise.
A great read.
November 9, 2018
Pretty interesting coming-of-age in the mountains with tight friendships, bad enemies, and young love right up in your face. There was nothing wrong with this novel at all (the friendships between Troy, Tommy, and Gabe were pretty touching), but there was a missing spark. The bad guy, Chase, didn't have a lot of depth and Troy's relationship with Luz was believable, but bland. Again, Ghost Medicine was a solid story with some decent action, but don't expect a Grasshopper Jungle here.
February 12, 2010
This was an interesting story about a young mans struggle and overcoming the hardships of like. His friends and family and how these relationships helped him to grow and become who he is. It deals with loss and sorrow and how he was able to heal and move on. The writing was ok. The language was a little rough at times but overall I did like the story.
June 2, 2018
Je ne savais pas trop quoi dire au sujet de ce roman et je me demandais pourquoi et comment j'avais réussi à le lire jusqu'au bout. Parce que c'est trèèèès leeeent et qu'il ne s'y passe pas grand chose.
Oui, on sait dès le départ qu'une tragédie se prépare et que trois jeunes hommes vont mourir, mais ce n'est que dans les dernières 50 pages (sur plus de 350 !) que l'action commence enfin... ET S'ARRÊTE 10 PAGES PLUS LOIN ! Ce roman n'est qu'une très très longue description des petits gestes du quotidien pour ces jeunes cowboys : s'habiller, seller le cheval, monter le cheval, observer le paysage, encore observer le paysage, chiquer du tabac et cracher de longs jets de salive brunâtre (tout en observant le paysage), etc.
C'est en lisant les commentaires de d'autres lecteurs que j'ai compris pourquoi j'avais persisté dans ma lecture. J'ai réalisé que ces cowboys n'étaient en fait que des adolescents normaux et non des super héros comme on les dépeint souvent dans les films ou les romans western. Ils apprennent la vie au même titre que n'importe quel ado normal, mais sur un ranch. Et lorsqu'ils vont à la recherche d'un puma qui a attaqué des chèvres, ils n'arrivent pas à le tuer du premier coup parce qu'ils sont terrifiés. Et quand ils essaient d'attraper des chevaux sauvages, ils ne réussissent qu'à tomber en bas de leur propre cheval.
Et l'amitié entre ces trois jeunes est magnifique. Et puis toute cette histoire est empreinte d'une tristesse constante qui s'amplifie à mesure qu'on tourne les pages.
Et finalement , je trouve la couverture superbe. Quand j'avais l'âge de ces personnages, j'avais un poster en noir et blanc dans ma chambre, sur lequel il y avait deux cowboys avec leurs chevaux.
À bien y penser, c'est peut-être juste pour ça que je me suis rendu au bout du livre !
Oui, on sait dès le départ qu'une tragédie se prépare et que trois jeunes hommes vont mourir, mais ce n'est que dans les dernières 50 pages (sur plus de 350 !) que l'action commence enfin... ET S'ARRÊTE 10 PAGES PLUS LOIN ! Ce roman n'est qu'une très très longue description des petits gestes du quotidien pour ces jeunes cowboys : s'habiller, seller le cheval, monter le cheval, observer le paysage, encore observer le paysage, chiquer du tabac et cracher de longs jets de salive brunâtre (tout en observant le paysage), etc.
C'est en lisant les commentaires de d'autres lecteurs que j'ai compris pourquoi j'avais persisté dans ma lecture. J'ai réalisé que ces cowboys n'étaient en fait que des adolescents normaux et non des super héros comme on les dépeint souvent dans les films ou les romans western. Ils apprennent la vie au même titre que n'importe quel ado normal, mais sur un ranch. Et lorsqu'ils vont à la recherche d'un puma qui a attaqué des chèvres, ils n'arrivent pas à le tuer du premier coup parce qu'ils sont terrifiés. Et quand ils essaient d'attraper des chevaux sauvages, ils ne réussissent qu'à tomber en bas de leur propre cheval.
Et l'amitié entre ces trois jeunes est magnifique. Et puis toute cette histoire est empreinte d'une tristesse constante qui s'amplifie à mesure qu'on tourne les pages.
Et finalement , je trouve la couverture superbe. Quand j'avais l'âge de ces personnages, j'avais un poster en noir et blanc dans ma chambre, sur lequel il y avait deux cowboys avec leurs chevaux.
À bien y penser, c'est peut-être juste pour ça que je me suis rendu au bout du livre !
March 11, 2024
Taken from the book "The summer before Troy Stotts turns seventeen, his mother dies. Troy and his father barely speak, communicating instead by writing notes on a legal pad by the phone. Troy spends most of his time with his closest friends: Tom Buller, brash and fearless, the son of a drunk; Gabe Benavidez, smart enough to know he’ll never take over the family ranch; and Gabe’s sister, Luz, whose family overprotects her, and who Troy has loved since they were children.
Troy and his friends don’t want trouble. They want this to be the summer of what Troy calls “ghost medicine,” when time seems to stop, so they won’t have to face the past or the future. But before the summer is over, their paths will cross in dangerous and fateful ways with people who will change their lives: Rose, a damaged derelict who lives with a flock of wild horses and goats; and Chase Rutledge, the arrogant sheriff’s son.
Troy and his friends want to disappear. Instead, they will become what they least expect —brothers, lovers, heroes, and ghosts."
The synopsis sounds like it would be a wonderful fun filled adventure with a few teenagers making wrong choices here and there. It is more, it is about teenagers learning to connect, protect and having to grew up way to fast.
Good story line but did drag here and there with the exception of the last few chapters, they had me on the edge of my seat on what was going to happen next but overall, slow moving story.
If you like cowboy books then this is a good book for you, if you can't handle cowboy way of life books, pass on this book. Lots of tobacco scenes.
Troy and his friends don’t want trouble. They want this to be the summer of what Troy calls “ghost medicine,” when time seems to stop, so they won’t have to face the past or the future. But before the summer is over, their paths will cross in dangerous and fateful ways with people who will change their lives: Rose, a damaged derelict who lives with a flock of wild horses and goats; and Chase Rutledge, the arrogant sheriff’s son.
Troy and his friends want to disappear. Instead, they will become what they least expect —brothers, lovers, heroes, and ghosts."
The synopsis sounds like it would be a wonderful fun filled adventure with a few teenagers making wrong choices here and there. It is more, it is about teenagers learning to connect, protect and having to grew up way to fast.
Good story line but did drag here and there with the exception of the last few chapters, they had me on the edge of my seat on what was going to happen next but overall, slow moving story.
If you like cowboy books then this is a good book for you, if you can't handle cowboy way of life books, pass on this book. Lots of tobacco scenes.
October 8, 2017
Não foi dessa vez!
Que baita decepção; estava com uma expectativa relativamente alta, já que AMO COM TODO O MEU CORAÇÃO Selva de Gafanhotos, e gosto de Minha Metade Silenciosa.
Todavia, este livro é péssimo, tem um ritmo sempiterno (num sentido totalmente negativo), já que o livro não evolui para lugar nenhum, a narrativa é massivamente tediosa, o tema meio velho-oeste é igual a trocentas outras histórias bem clichês, os personagens são vários desmiolados que não sabem o que estão fazendo; e (acho que) esta tradução é detestável, o texto não flui, os diálogos são muito trincados, e acho que a essência do texto se perde ao ser traduzida. Um dos pontos bons foram as distribuições dos capítulos, e os sonhos que ocorrem frequentemente.
Mas acho que também de ler cinco livros de autores brasileiros, escritos em língua portuguesa; sou apto para notar as enormes diferenças de um texto traduzido, e um texto escrito na língua em que se lê. Principalmente após ler grandes autores como Lygia Fagundes Telles, que não é para qualquer um; e Daniel Galera, que tem uma das melhores escritas do Brasil contemporâneo.
Este livro é uma grande demonstração de como devemos valorizar o que escrito em nossa língua mãe, pois se fosse obrigado a ler livros com este tipo de tradução, acho que não seria tão apetecido pelos livros.
Que baita decepção; estava com uma expectativa relativamente alta, já que AMO COM TODO O MEU CORAÇÃO Selva de Gafanhotos, e gosto de Minha Metade Silenciosa.
Todavia, este livro é péssimo, tem um ritmo sempiterno (num sentido totalmente negativo), já que o livro não evolui para lugar nenhum, a narrativa é massivamente tediosa, o tema meio velho-oeste é igual a trocentas outras histórias bem clichês, os personagens são vários desmiolados que não sabem o que estão fazendo; e (acho que) esta tradução é detestável, o texto não flui, os diálogos são muito trincados, e acho que a essência do texto se perde ao ser traduzida. Um dos pontos bons foram as distribuições dos capítulos, e os sonhos que ocorrem frequentemente.
Mas acho que também de ler cinco livros de autores brasileiros, escritos em língua portuguesa; sou apto para notar as enormes diferenças de um texto traduzido, e um texto escrito na língua em que se lê. Principalmente após ler grandes autores como Lygia Fagundes Telles, que não é para qualquer um; e Daniel Galera, que tem uma das melhores escritas do Brasil contemporâneo.
Este livro é uma grande demonstração de como devemos valorizar o que escrito em nossa língua mãe, pois se fosse obrigado a ler livros com este tipo de tradução, acho que não seria tão apetecido pelos livros.
February 25, 2018
This is not my favorite book of Andrew Smith's (sorry Andrew), but I still enjoyed it. It was much slower paced than his other novels and took me awhile to get into the story, but I'm not complaining. This story does a fantastic job, as Smith typically does, at describing the relationships within teenage boys' lives. In our culture where male emotional expression is repressed, I find it fascinating to explore the battle of societal norms and inner emotional turmoil of characters when they're still figuring out who they are in the formative teenage years (probably due to my own struggle with this as a teenager). Smith does a fantastic job at exploring these issues and I wasn't disappointed with the delivery of these topics in Ghost Medicine.
March 2, 2018
So far the start was very slow and basically just puts you slap in the middle of a story. Which personally i did not like because it basically turned the first 100 pages of the book in to an introduction. Once i had gotten past that point the story picks up some and i do start to enjoy it moi know the characters. Still though i have trouble getting into the book at parts because i basically just reading someones biography or at least that is how i feel.
Another edit:
Looks like there is finally some plot added to the story after page 130. I also have gained a tiny bit of more interest and hopefully will become more interested as it goes on form here i will be able to pick up and finish it.
Another edit:
Looks like there is finally some plot added to the story after page 130. I also have gained a tiny bit of more interest and hopefully will become more interested as it goes on form here i will be able to pick up and finish it.
October 3, 2018
Troy just recently lost his mother, and he has no clue how to begin dealing with it. Thankfully, it’s the close relationships with his friends, Tommy and Gabe, and his crush, Luz, Gabe’s sister. They aim to spend their summer with one another, forgetting about all else. Unfortunately, they run into danger in the form of Chase Rutledge, the sheriff’s son. For Troy, the summer ends up becoming one of the best and worst in his life.
This is a tale of true friendship. Troy, Tommy, and Gabe have a connection that everyone should want in a strong friendship. These boys go through Hell and back, yet then never waver in their love for one another.
This is a tale of true friendship. Troy, Tommy, and Gabe have a connection that everyone should want in a strong friendship. These boys go through Hell and back, yet then never waver in their love for one another.
December 6, 2023
Wonderous novel. So much scope and characterization and beauty. Pain, love, hurt, it's all there for the taking. This was an awesome surprise since I've read so much of Andrew Smith but couldn't locate this novel. It reminded me a lot of 100 Sideways Miles which is also an amazing read. I wish he would write another book, but I know there are other forces at play here. If you're a fan, read this. The 3 boys are incredible and there is so much going on you never get tired of locating all the wonder. It's great.
September 3, 2025
This was my 13th novel by Andrew Smith, and my only regret is that I didn't read it sooner. If I were asked to describe Ghost Medicine in one word, it would be "Genuine"; if the author said this was recalled directly from his childhood, I would believe it. Everything about it feels real, and as a result, the emotional wallop near the end hits even harder than it likely would have otherwise. If you're a fan of Andrew Smith, this one is a must-read, and if you're not, it would certainly be a great one to start with!
February 25, 2022
The story was about how Troy's summer went, after his mom dies right before. Three people towards the end of the summer also die and one of those people is Troy's best friend. Troy has another best friend who is Gabey and his older sister, Luz, which is in his class. I would say the theme of the story is that your family is made up of the people that make up you in a sense, not just blood, but also close friends. The people who you choose to be in your family are also the people you would defend to the end even if casualties are made during the process.
February 26, 2017
This book was slow and nothing much happened until the end. Normally I would just put it down or skip through bits of it, but this still held my intrest. I liked the main characters and the bond they had to eachother.
The ending did make me feel things, but all in all this just wasn't really my type of book.
The ending did make me feel things, but all in all this just wasn't really my type of book.
October 31, 2017
Ghost Medicine is the story of a group of friends that want to spend the summer without having to worry about the future. Ghost medicine is the time that stops, no future, no presence. The story shows friends through summer adventures that leads them into many situations fun, and dangerous. They stick together in a final hoorah for a summer to remember.
July 20, 2017
The narrarator, Troy, tells us the ending (without the specifics) in the prologue, then begins the story at the beginning. There are a lot of relationships in this story. There is a bond of friendship. Troy, Gabe loose their boyhood as this story in revealed.
May 31, 2018
Was quite pleasantly surprised with this one. Sort of a YA Cormac McCarthy feel to it... Lots of action but not hurriedly so. Great feel to the trio of friends. Realistic dialogue (which seems hard to find with YA). Am recommending it to mature, thoughtful YAs who wouldn't mind a "cowboy" setting.
June 19, 2019
As Troy Stotts starts his summer, just before he turns 17, the world...begins to show its colors.
This was an interesting read, more of a coming of age story with a slightly discernible plot that I enjoyed. All in all, a good book.
This was an interesting read, more of a coming of age story with a slightly discernible plot that I enjoyed. All in all, a good book.
January 20, 2019
This book is such a unique coming of age story. It’s gripping, subtle, and full of real life consequence. I’d add it to curriculum if I were a teacher.
Read
May 30, 2021
Trigger & Content Warnings
Parent with alcoholism
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother
Death of a brother
Parent with alcoholism
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother
Death of a brother
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