Friday 1 August 2014

The Moment Collector by Jodi Lynn Anderson

"The yard of this house is a graveyard of moments and everything left behind is a clue. And I am here to dig."

There's a ghost haunting 208 Water Street. She doesn't know who she was, or why she's still here. She does know that she is drawn to Maggie, the new girl in town, and her friends - beautiful, carefree Pauline and Liam, the boy who loves her.

But the ghost isn't all that's lurking in Gill Creek... Someone is killing young girls all across the county. Can the ghost keep these three friends safe? Or does she have another purpose?


Maggie is the new girl in a small town, living in a run down old house among a few others alongside a lake. She immediately clicks with new neighbours Pauline and Liam, a bright and lively girl and the boy who's loved her forever. But that's not all: there is a killer on the loose, hunting girls in their area. At first, it is something to gossip and speculate about but as the police find no suspects and the missing girls pile up, people start to worry. So shops close for the winter, a curfew is put in place, and when Pauline sneaks out with Liam, she is sent to live with her aunt in another state. 

While all this is happening, the ghost follows Maggie's story without knowing why. This was sort of exciting to read, gathering little clues that might tell of who he or she was, but the odd parts from the ghost did sometimes just distracted me from the main story a little. The mystery of who the ghost was came in and out of focus, which was kind of nice, it gave a nice flow to the story, a strange balance between the ghost and the mystery of the killer. 

The overall story was really interesting, maybe not completely engrossing but still very intriguing to read; I think it's just because I expected something else. However, I really did enjoy it as it was more than just a mystery, there was also friendship and first love and teenage betrayal, not to mention history and death! As it turns out, I flew through the second half, so hoping for a happy ending for Maggie. Despite their flaws, I loved all three teens, and the ending just about broke my heart. But it did solve the mystery, so there was a sense of balance and... completion. It was sad and quite bittersweet but it made sense.

Published 7th August 2014 by Orchard Books. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review. 

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