The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

Alona Dare–Senior in high school, co-captain of the cheerleading squad, Homecoming Queen three years in a row, voted most likely to marry a movie star… and newly dead.

I’m the girl you hated in high school. Is it my fault I was born with it all-good looks, silky blond hair, a hot bod, and a keen sense of what everyone else should not be wearing? But my life isn’t perfect, especially since I died. Run over by a bus of band geeks—is there anything more humiliating? As it turns out, yes—watching your boyfriend and friends move on with life, only days after your funeral. And you wouldn’t believe what they’re saying about me now that they think I can’t hear them. To top it off, I’m starting to disappear, flickering in and out of existence. I don’t know where I go when I’m gone, but it’s not good. Where is that freaking white light already?

Will Killian–Senior in high school, outcast, dubbed “Will Kill” by the popular crowd for the unearthly aura around him, voted most likely to rob a bank…and a ghost-talker.

I can see, hear, and touch the dead. Unfortunately, they can also see, hear and touch me. Yeah, because surviving high school isn’t hard enough already. I’ve done my best to hide my “gift.” After all, my dad, who shared my ability, killed himself because of it when I was fifteen. But lately, pretending to be normal has gotten a lot harder. A new ghost—an anonymous, seething cloud of negative energy with the capacity to throw me around—is pursuing me with a vengeance. My mom, who knows nothing about what I can do, is worrying about the increase in odd incidents, my shrink is tossing around terms like “temporary confinement for psychiatric evaluation,” and my principal, who thinks I’m a disruption and a faker, is searching for every way possible to get rid of me. How many weeks until graduation?

I thought this was a light and funny read.

The voice of Alona Dare is done so well. She is the mean, cold, b@tch you hated in school, but sadly,she dies, because of a reason that is made clear at the end of the book. But she comes back from the dead expecting the world to have stopped because she is no longer there and sadly, it's almost like she is yesterday's news. She is furious and angry and looking for help and she finds it in a social outcast named Will Killian, who can also hear the dead.

Alona is so pushy that Will blows his cover and the other ghosts realize Will can hear them. Naturally, they want his help, but can you imagine every ghost in town beating down your door to take care of your unfinished business?

Throughout the story Alona's walls break down and we see that she is still that tough, aggressive girl, but maybe there is a reason for it. Will, well, Will's crush on Alona grows. (yeah, she's still dead.) I am a hopeless romantic and I love it when couples defy the odds, but how is Kade going to defy the odds for Will and Alona? I mean, she's dead and buried, literally. But still, so sweet.

The story is not just about Alona and Will though. There is a tragic story about one of Will's friend, Lilly. She sought Will's help but he missed her help and something bad happened to her. Then there is this giant black cloud (?) that attacks Will at different times. He thinks it is his father, who committed suicide, and is angry with Will for wanting to leave his mother after he graduates. Alona, as she states a few times in the book, maybe pretty but she isn't stupid and doesn't think it is Will's father. So what is it then?

Some quick thoughts

A light quick read. - a lot of humor. - I read it in a day

I have already picked up the sequel - thanks to Judy

I want Alona and Will to be together - *realizes she is whining and is OK with it*

The boy on the cover is NOT how I picture Will AT ALL. He's way hotter in my head.