Fiction

Author: Hanna AlkafGenres: Fiction, Ghost Stories, Middle Grade, Mystery, To-readI am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother’s legacy. I am yours to command. 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. “The Girl and the Ghost” is an interesting ghost story. I overall liked it, though I hadn’t known before I started reading that it takes place in Malaysia. There were a number of Malaysian words used in the story and I would have liked a vocabulary list in the back of the book to help out. There were a few times I just kept reading and probably didn’t get as much out of the story as was possible for lack of clarification. It did have some scenes that could easily be found as graphic for an MG book. I did like the idea of finding both family and friends that you will find when you read “The Girl and the Ghost.” Additionally, it was an interesting glance into current Malaysian culture. Worth the read.