Wednesday, January 27, 2016

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie


My sister, also a giant book nerd, joined me last year for Texas Book Festival and we had a great time. She reads mostly YA fiction and loved hearing all the YA authors speak. One such author, Paige McKenzie, was presenting her new book The Haunting of Sunshine Girl. McKenzie is a 17-year-old young woman who has created the character of Sunshine Girl and her various hauntings. After several years as a supernatural YouTube series, she released this book. Sunshine is a 16-year-old girl who comes to realize that she is meant to help spirits cross to the other side. She is very resistant to this idea at first, but when the stakes get too high for her to ignore, she accepts her role. This book is the first in a series and it ends in a bit of a cliffhanger, just to keep the reader interested.

Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. I am impressed by any 17-year-old who has a book published, but, sadly, this read exactly like a book written by a 17-year-old. The writing just wasn't very strong and I think her editors could have helped her more. Her website features a blurb by Yahoo that says "For Harry Potter and Twilight Fans." I certainly saw the Twilight connection, but it was definitely no Harry Potter. My sister really liked this book and that was my only real motivation to finish it. It was a quick read, but not really worth my time. Maybe I'm wrong and you'll love it. Or maybe not.

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