The Event,
which caused sickness, environmental damage, and chaos, took the lives of
between one and four million people, according to government estimates. It has left heartache, ghosts, and ghostly
holograms behind. There is a boy teenage
ghost living in Veronica Calder’s house, and her father’s ghost makes an
appearance every morning at the same time.
More and more ghosts are showing up, and their presence is getting
stronger by the day!
Veronica, “Ronnie”,
and her friend, Kirk Lane, begin investigating the ghosts for one of the
teachers at their high school and stumble upon a set of related “cold case” serial
murders. What they also discover is that
Mr. Bittner, another one of their teachers, has been waiting for his daughter’s
ghost to show up for years in another girl’s body. Kirk thinks he has set his sights on Ronnie
to be the vessel to give his daughter another chance at life! His dilemma is to convince Veronica and to
keep her safe!
What a creepy,
suspenseful ghost story Daniel Waters has written! The meshing of the ghosts and their stories
with serial murders was simply ingenious on his part! I loved how Brian, the teenage ghost living
in Ronnie’s house, played a large part in the story and was actually trying to
protect her. His story was just
heart-wrenching, but tied right in with one of the murders and added a great
twist in the plot!
Ronnie and
Kirk are both strong, brave characters, even going so far as to hunt ghosts in
the middle of the night in abandoned buildings!
No way would you catch me doing that!
It is Ronnie’s friend, Janine, who really grows and matures throughout
the book. Even though she is deathly
afraid of ghosts, she ends up being courageous enough to overcome her fears and
help Ronnie near the end of the book.
History teacher
August Bittner, is a most deceptively sinister character. He is obviously mentally disturbed, and is
possibly both schizophrenic and manic depressant. While
his outward demeanor exhibits concern and passion for Ronnie, it is extremely
obvious he has malevolent ideas. He
absolutely oozes creepiness!
Throughout the
book there are a lot of complex theories about the afterlife and peoples’
memories. There is also an abundance of
foreshadowing, and many of the characters exhibit signs of mental problems,
possibly caused by PESD, “Post Event Stress Disorder” (Daniel Waters’s term).
Break My Heart 1,000 Times is a
real-page turner! My disclaimer: Don’t read it alone at night in the dark! Readers who enjoy thrillers and ghost stories
will love it! I highly recommend it for
middle school, high school and public libraries!
**Reviewer’s
note: The copy reviewed was an ARC
received from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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