Anya is jealous of and greatly resents popular girl Elizabeth Standard. She has a crush on Elizabeth's boyfriend Sean and plans to steal him from her. Anya hates how everything about her is utterly nice, making her wish Elizabeth would show just once that she can be imperfect too. Elizabeth appears to be completely in the dark about how Anya feels about her, and treats her nicely. Anya later lets go of her jealousy and resentment of Elizabeth when she learns that Sean is a creep who sleeps around with other girls, while Elizabeth allows him to cheat on her because she is miserable and insecure without him - Elizabeth is willing to do anything to keep him in her life because he makes her happy.

Ordinary Highschool Student: Anya, Siobhan and their classmates. Evidently, Emily wants very badly to be one. Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: We're led to believe at first that Emily is just a timid but friendly ghost who only wants to be free from the hole her remains are in, akin to Casper. But once she manages to get Anya to go to Sean's party, the facade slowly starts to crumble and we begin to see how she really is. a b c d Carpenter, Susan (June 19, 2011). "Not Just For Kids: 'Anya's Ghost' ". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. OCLC 3638237. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016 . Retrieved May 9, 2021. Cute Ghost Girl: She's more of a mousy, spindly kind of cute, but still distinctly adorable. Most of the time, anyway...Anya’s Ghost is a coming-of-age ghost story by Vera Brosgol. It was published in graphic novel format in 2011, though Brosgol, who both wrote and drew the story, has said that it took four years to complete.

Returning home to confront Emily, Anya finds the bone missing and discovers that the ghost’s powers are much more extensive than she was led to believe. Emily is capable of moving solid objects and even hurting people. She confesses to Anya that the reason she has been helping her at school is because she wants to give Anya the life she never had, which is why she has been so adamant that Anya should seduce Sean by any means necessary. A lovely story about friendship, selfishness and maturity. Try the artist's blog for more information. a b Ceceri, Kathy (May 31, 2011). "Review: Anya's Ghost". Wired. San Francisco: Condé Nast. ISSN 1059-1028. OCLC 24479723. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016 . Retrieved August 8, 2017. Had the novel's 'Oh shit' moment been a bit more elongated and dealt with in a way that was consistent to the main character, I probably would have rated it at least 3 stars.

In a time of typewriters and steam engines, Iris Winnow awaits word from her older brother, who has enlisted on the side of Enva the Skyward goddess. Alcohol abuse led to her mother’s losing her job, and Iris has dropped out of school and found work utilizing her writing skills at the Oath Gazette. Hiding the stress of her home issues behind a brave face, Iris competes for valuable assignments that may one day earn her the coveted columnist position. Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. At home, she writes cathartic letters to her brother, never posting them but instead placing them in her wardrobe, where they vanish overnight. One day Iris receives a reply, which, along with other events, pushes her to make dramatic life decisions. Magic plays a quiet role in this story, and readers may for a time forget there is anything supernatural going on. This is more of a wartime tale of broken families, inspired youths, and higher powers using people as pawns. It flirts with clichéd tropes but also takes some startling turns. Main characters are assumed White; same-sex marriages and gender equality at the warfront appear to be the norm in this world. Emily later appears to Anya at school, Anya having inadvertently taken a finger bone from Emily's skeleton. Anya decides to keep the bone after Emily helps her cheat on a biology exam and spy on her crush, Sean. Emily gives her full name as Emily Reilly and explains that her fiancé died fighting in World WarI, and that her parents were murdered at home. She was running from the killer when she fell down the well. Anya promises to find Emily's killer, while Emily agrees to help Anya fit in at school and win over Sean. As their friendship develops, Anya drifts away from her one friend at school, Siobhan, while Emily becomes disinterested in discovering her murderer's identity. There was this great subtlety in Brosgol’s writing/drawing and Anya’s insecurities were introduced with such skill and it never felt too overwhelming. From the get go, Anya is at odds with society. She is insecure in how she looks, she’s self-conscious about her heritage, she has a crush on a boy who has a blonde All-American girlfriend with the perfect life and she argues with her mum all the time because they don’t understand how the other one is feeling. And then she gets haunted by a pesky ghost. I mean, come on…doesn’t she get a break?

And as for the ghost, I’ll refrain from talking too much about her, simply because her role drives the story. We’ll just leave it at this: I was surprised by what Brosgol did with what could have been a terribly cliched device. And that I could be so pleasantly pleased speaks highly for Brosgol’s product here.I dated a girl once with haunted cleavage. Well, okay, no. I didn’t. But pretending I did makes the whole thing seem more worthwhile. Expository Hairstyle Change: Emily learns to flatten her hair to create a more modern look, showing how she's becoming stronger in what she can do as a ghost and how her relationship with Anya is changing.

In the first place, Brosgol works hard to make Anya a character who very easily could be weird or strange or unwelcome but isn’t. She’s a typical teen from an immigrant family. She herself is an immigrant and by her word we learn that she’s worked very hard to compen

This review is probably going to be shorter than others because of risk of spoilers. Just take my word for it and read this book. Kirk Summation: Anya's last argument with Emily. She sums up how basically Emily was trying to live the life she lost through Anya herself, but pointing out she lost her chance already. Anya feels out of place at her preppy private school; embarrassed by her Russian heritage, she has worked hard to lose her accent and to look more like everyone else. After a particularly frustrating morning at the bus stop, Anya storms off, only to accidentally fall down a well. Down in the dark hole, she meets Emily, a ghost who claims to be a murder victim trapped down in the dank abyss for 90 years. With Emily’s help, Anya manages to escape, though once free, she learns that Emily has traveled out with her. At first, Emily seems like the perfect friend; however, once her motives become clear, Anya learns that “perfect” may only be an illusion. A moodily atmospheric spectrum of grays washes over the clean, tidy panels, setting a distinct stage before the first words appear. Brosgol’s tight storytelling invokes the chilling feeling of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (2002), though for a decidedly older set. In addition to the supernatural elements, Brosgol interweaves some savvy insights about the illusion of perfection and outward appearance. Sympathy for the Devil: Anya feels this for Emily after she takes control of her own skeleton and drags herself out of the well, bones falling apart and incapable of even forming any words with her decommissioned jawbone. Anya admits to her that she understands what it's like to want another person's life, but that neither of them can actually know what's going in someone else's head, and that they might be hurting just as much as you. She comes closer, puts her arm out, and gently tells her that what she wants, a chance to live again vicariously through Anya, doesn't even exist. Emily sheds silent tears and dissipates herself into the night sky.