Ghost World: It was really sad

Ghost World was a very sad book. The characters had so many good things in front of them and yet they did not appreciate what they had. If I had been in their position I would have been quite happy. For instance, the boy who Enid and Rebecca hang out with a lot is nice and they should have treated him nicer because that is what I thought he deserved. I was also quite confused by the ending because I did not know whether or not Rebecca and Josh were dating or not. Anyone have any ideas about this because I was totally lost. Also where is Enid going on the bus? It was almost like the author did not even try but instead just came up with random scenes and things to happen. It was so random like when Enid shaves her head and then it does not get brought up again. The colors I did not like at first, but they grew on me, especially when I noticed that the colored tiles in my kitchen (white and green) were the same color as the colors in the book (white and green).

If there was one thing I could have changed about the story though, it would be to make it a little happier. “Life is what you make it” as they say. I counted up the panels that I thought were happy and the ones I thought were sad and there were many more sad panels than the happy ones. I would like to suggest that next time this class is taught that in place of Ghost World we read something like Madeline (a graphic novel about young women), or Clifford Takes a Trip (a graphic novel about a bus ride), or Frog and Toad are Friends (a graphic novel about a frog, named Frog, and a toad, named Toad, who are friends). In my opinion they are all happy alternatives sure to put a smile on anyone’s face!

But that is not to say that the book was all bad. It definitely had some good moments that I did think represented my time in high school. For instance when Enid decides to get a hearse it made me think about when me and my friends all wanted to have hearses after we had watched Harold and Maude. It was also interesting how there was a character named David Clowes in the book and I wondered if Daniel Clowes was maybe making fun of his brother or something. Lastly the different things that would be playing on the television were sometimes really ridiculous and the way that the characters would talk about what was on the tv reminds me a lot of things my friends and I have said some of the stuff you see on tv. My friends and I did not hang out in cafes that much though because it is kinda expensive, so I am not sure how Enid and Rebecca could afford it.

I got Professor Chee’s e-mail (but I only had time to glance at it) and I guess he wants these to be more like Amazon.com reviews? So I guess I will just close by saying that I give this graphic novel a 2 stars out of 5. It probably would have gotten 3 or 4 stars if it had been a story about a “world” where “ghosts” live like I was expecting it to be.