Liv, Forever

Amy Talkington

- 4.7 • 10 Ratings

- $8.99

- $8.99

This debut ghostly romance, set at a sinister boarding school, is “spooky, sexy, strange, and shocking,” says Printz and National Book Award finalist E. Lockhart.

When Liv Bloom lands an art scholarship at Wickham Hall, she’s thrilled. The school’s traditions and rituals may be a little strange, but for the first time ever she has her own studio, supplies—everything she could want. Including Malcolm Astor, a legacy student with his own art obsession. Liv’s defenses melt, despite warnings from fellow scholarship kid Gabe Nichols not to get involved with Malcom.

But her bliss is doomed; weeks after arriving, Liv is viciously murdered. Gabe, the only one who can see her, is now her sole link to the world of the living. Together, Liv, Gabe, and Malcolm fight to expose the terrible truth that haunts the halls of Wickham.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JAN 13, 2014

Think Ghost meets The Sixth Sense, acted by the Brat Pack this first novel from screenwriter Talkington has the feel of an elevator pitch. Readers who haven't seen the movies shouldn't have a problem with the lack of originality; the author's prose is highly readable, her story is well-paced, and the three protagonists (while not much more than familiar types) are sketched with appealing deftness. Liv, the arty outsider, is accepted to old-money Wickham Hall, a boarding school in the woods of New Hampshire. She naturally gravitates toward Gabe a strange, moody boy shunned by the rest but her heart thrills to Malcolm, one of the most popular students. Gabe claims to see ghosts, which pragmatic Liv doubts, until she becomes one. Discovering who killed her drives the final two-thirds of the book. The relentlessly visual focus of the prose (with frequent references to William Blake, Giacometti, Haring, Caspar David Friedrich, and more) reveals Talkington's personal vision, but it's a vision that readers without a significant cultural vocabulary will find it difficult to fully share in. Ages 14 up.

GENRE