Summary of the Book

    The book "Ruined" by Paula Morris is about a girl named Rebecca who leaves her home in New York, because her dad was going on a business trip to China. She goes to live with her family-friends; Aunt Claudia, and Aurelia, in the Garden District, New Orleans. She is settling into the new way of life there, and so one night, she goes to the graveyard to spy on the popular kids (and by the way, she is NOT allowed in the graveyard). She meets a girl there who's name is Lisette, and she helps her find her way out. Rebecca meets the girl again, and finds out that Lisette is a ghost. When a popular girl's Christmas Party comes around, Lisette says she is going to show up too, but Rebecca didn't think anybody else could see her. Helena, starts screaming and nobody knows why, but we figure out it's because she can see Lisette aswell. Rebecca has no clue what is going on, and demands answers from her Aunt. Then her Aunt explains every thing about this strange, old town's past, and scary events in the future. It all goes down at the Septimus Parade.

-I don't want to say to much and ruin the book...

Would I Recommend?

          I would recommend this book to anybody who's in my class, that can handle a ghost story. :P If you like intense books, this is a great one to read. Also you might like this book if you're okay with not really knowing why things are happening all the time, although that just makes this book better when it hits you like a brick wall near the end. I liked how Paula Morris didn't really let you know what the character was going to say or do until it happened.

Favourite Part Of the Book

       My favourite part of the book was Chapter Twenty-Nine. This was the part when Aunt Claudia told Rebecca important information such as the curse, and what had happened. I think this was one of the very intense parts, and it kept me turning the pages. Actually while I was reading this I gasped out loud. No joke. Aunt Claudia is, and always has been, a lady thats involved with voodoo, so she knows when things are going to happen, and what dates are important. Sometimes she doesn't know why. This part is now when we find out who Rebecca really is, who she is actually related to, and why this is a problem. There are little clues, and slowly, they are putting together what might happen in the future. I don't want to say to much incase somebody wants to read the book; my favourite part would ruin it for them. Do take my word for it though, that chapter was crazy..

Main Conflict

         The main conflict is that nobody had told her until she was 16, that she was living under a curse. If Lisette had not been murdered, than her mother wouldn't had put the curse on the Bowman family. If there was no curse, Rebecca wouldn't of had to go through all this trouble. Nobody told her that she could have died, and she doesn't figure out until there is only a few weeks left. You don't really figure out that this is the biggest problem until the end of the book. Because of this, Rebecca could have died.

Reading Strategies I Used

Example 1:

     There is this one connections I was thinking of throughout the whole book. The majority of the time in ghost stories, the ghost is very evil, and wherever it haunts, is a scary place. If ghosts are usually evil, is the ghost (Lisette) in my story, going to be bad? Especially if there is a curse involved, the ghost must be mean right? Because of that connection to ghost stories, I kept inferring that Lisette would do something bad.

Example 2:

  I definitely used question making, because of the Authors Writing Style. You never know what's going to happen, and Paula Morris really made me keep turning pages to see what would happen. One section in the novel the questions were just flying through my mind it was when Rebecca found out she could die in a few months, because of Lisette, and the next day she was going to go find Lisette and talk to her. One questions I had were why would Rebecca even want to see the possibly-ghost-who-was-going-to-murder-her-in-a-few-months ghost?? If I was her, I would try to stay as disconnected as I could to Lisette, although Rebecca isn't afraid of much.

Example 3:

There was one part I visualized more than anything. It was when Rebecca went for a walk with Lisette, to Lisette's old house, and they saw a bunch of other ghosts. I pictured in my head what each individual ghost that they met might look like. For example, they were describing a lady that died in 1829 who was murdered. I imagined her in a dress with blood stains and more. Let's just say it's not a very pretty picture. 

The Author's Writing Style

I enjoyed the author's writing style a lot, actuly, this book is one of my favourites. Paula Morris wrote the book with unexpecting twists. I actually gasped out loud once, and the people around me thought I was weird! When you are reading and you are sure one thing is going to happen, something comepletely different happens, and that is what I like about the book.