Ghost Roast

[cornerofmadness]

Ghost Roast: A Graphic Novel by Shawnelle Gibbs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was really cute and I loved the art. Chelsea, a high schooler, has managed to make friends with the In Crowd at her high school but it feels like a position that could be taken away easily. She doesn't quite fit in with these people, as her mom doesn't make much money and her father (parents are divorced) is a cross between Ray Stanz and Zak Bagans. He is a paranormal investigator (barely surviving on it) and has a new embarrassing ad out. He is the titular Ghost Roaster (think how the Ghostbusters tag and bag their ghosts) along with a young man around Chelsea's age. He also believes that ghosts are dangerous and lead to the death of one of his relatives.

After Chelsea ends up in trouble after a party, her punishment is to work for her dad all summer (vs what she wanted to go do with her friends). And here is where the story takes on dealing with plantation life, slavery and the modern day ramifications of it (my take away, which I'm both biased to think this way and also unlike Chelsea and the authors I am not of African descent, is that the historical places don't need torn to the ground and forgotten but rather can be used as a talking point about the pain and suffering of the people who lived there)

Chelsea learns she can see ghosts like the older women in her family could and she also meets Oliver, one of the former owners of the plantation, a cute young man who can't remember how he died or why he's still tied to the place. Chelsea tries to solve that mystery (again leading us into the fraught history of slave ownership, biracial people and colorism, all of which I felt was done well) If she can't figure it out, her father might successfully exorcise poor Oliver.

It is a good story, fun characters and like I said, touches on important history and things that still have effects today. I enjoyed this.



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