The Girl and the Ghost
by Hanna Alkaf
Source: Purchase/ Hardcover
Published: Aug. 2020
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Length: 288 pages
Genre: Ghost/folk tale
Target Age: 9+
#OwnVoices: Author and protagonist are Muslim Malay
Summary 💬
Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable. But Suraya doesn’t know that pelesits have a dark side—and when Pink’s shadows threaten to consume them both, they must find enough light to survive . . . before they are both lost to the darkness.
Goodreads
Review ✍🏻
The Girl and the Ghost comes first to mind when I consider my favourite middle grade reads of the year. Alkaf crafts her characters, plot, and most significantly prose in a manner that hits all my key appeal factors. This is one of those books that took me ages to write a short review, because I enjoyed it so much. But here’s my stab at explaining the ‘why’ behind my enjoyment.
Prose
I knew the main reason I would cite The Girl and the Ghost as a favourite was the prose. But what was it about the writing style that appealed to me so much over other styles? I recognized that it echoes other middle grade books I love. In an interview with Mishma @ Chasing Faerytales, Alkaf noted that she was inspired by how Kelly Barnhill “uses language to paint a picture for the reader” in The Girl Who Drank the Moon, another favourite middle grade fantasy of mine. Alkaf’s writing paints a beautiful, often haunting, picture of a girl’s life in the Malaysian countryside with only a ghost for a friend.
I kept writing style appeal in mind as I read more middle grade after The Girl and the Ghost. I think I have finally figured out what I love: The fairy tale atmosphere that’s invoked by a third person narrator (explicit or not) telling you the story. I have tried multiple ways of describing this but I never get it quite right. So I guess that’s all I’m going to say this time around. I know it when I feel it! 😛 Other examples of this include The Girl Who Drank the Moon, of course, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, and When the Sea Turned to Silver. Examples of NOT this include my recent reads – Scritch Scratch, The Language of Ghosts, and The Dragon Egg Princess.
Plot and Characters
I will say less on these points so as not to give much away. The aytpical plotting for a middle grade story kept me on my toes. There are moments of particular ghostly viciousness. The characters acted in ways fitting their personalities. Their relationships with one another, however, allowed the plot to move in a direction I didn’t anticipate. The dual perspectives of Suraya and Pink (titular girl and ghost) give the story an unusual depth, particularly because of Pink’s “shadows that threaten to consume them both” (jacket copy). Both Suraya and Pink must grow and learn about themselves in order to overcome the villain of the story.
Other characters who enrich the story include Suraya’s distant mother, who plays an increasingly important role, and Suraya’s new friend Jing Wei, who draws Pink’s ire. At its heart, The Girl and the Ghost is a tale about the trials of friendships, family, and trauma, and it uses each of these characters to tell that tale.
The Bottom Line 💭
A wonderfully dark yet vivid and rewarding tale about the challenges of true friendship, grounded in Malay culture and folk beliefs.
Further Reading 📰
🍂 Read an excerpt
🍂 Author website
🍂 Interviews @ Chasing Faerytales and The Quiet Pond
🍂 Reviews: A Naga of the Nusantara (reviewer is Malaysian), Kate @ Your Tita Kate, Kathie @ Bit About Books
🍂 Related: Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh is another excellent dark middle grade novel in which Korean shamanism plays an important role.
What’s your favourite 2020 middle grade release, or middle grade book you read in 2020?
I’m excited to read this one thanks to your review!
Whoot whoot, love to hear that!
And…I’m still waiting for the library to process the copy I have on hold. I’ve been waiting for some holds since July. 🙁
Ah yeah, tis a challenge of 2020 – getting new releases from the library! My library didn’t buy physical materials for monthssss so it is taking some time for new releases to be processed. I put the Good Omens DVD on hold Nov 2019 and it’s finally just switched status to ‘newly acquired’, haha.
Yeah, I think the library is working with limited staffing, so they just aren’t processing books. Based on the catalog listings, I would say the books have been bought, but no one is putting them into the system. But I don’t know what they’re going to do if they get increasingly behind. At what point will you not be caught up? And how weird will it be to have a May 2020 release finally processed say in November 2021?
I have been wondering about this at well. For my library, it seems we’re just purchasing major titles. And maybe we’ll add other releases if patrons request? But we also still aren’t taking requests for physical materials (only digital). I think we’re just about caught up on processing 2020 physical releases that we did have on order, so I’m glad about that at least!
I don’t know. I put in a request months ago, which the library said they’d purchase, and it still hasn’t been processed. It’s all a mystery! XD
Indeed!! But now I have another question – was that a request for a physical item? (we’re still only taking purchase requests for digital items)
It was a physical item. The library is doing curbside delivery, so they are buying and loaning out new items. They…just don’t seem to be processing that many.
I think that out of all the elements that make up a book, I’m most likely to be stumped when describing prose. With really fantastic prose, I think that if I could explain why it was so good, I’d probably be a best-selling author instead of just a reader! The level of skill happening sometimes seems beyond me. I rarely get the same feeling when describing character, pacing, structure, or plot.
RIGHT if I could describe prose as well as its written, then I would write it myself, haha. I was having a conversation yesterday with someone about why I like middle grade prose and I struggled to explain in a way they (as someone who doesn’t read MG) could understand.