Tally should never have written that email. Then again, she didn’t believe her doctors or 
her parents when they told her the life she remembered, the friends, the love, the parties, had all just been a dream within her coma. A coma she had slipped into after taking drugs. She knew she wouldn’t do that. On her release she had reached out to the popular kids, her friends, but in return received only scorn and mockery. She had been popular once, if only in her dream, and she was determined to be again. She would find her way back, and along the way clear her name. Of course, if she didn’t take the drugs, then it was clear something else must have happened, and her regaining her memory is not in everyone’s best interest.
I have read a number of books by Joey Paul, and no one quite writes like her. I love her engaging first-person narrative, especially how they are tailored to the focal character’s personality. Tally is a great character, confused, funny, and determined. Once you pick up Blackout time will lose all meaning as you find yourself enthralled in the expertly told tale. The style of this book reminds me a lot of the point horror I used to read while in school, while it is aimed at a young adult audience, adults will find it just as gripping. Well-written, enjoyable, and moving, well deserving of five stars, and I’ve already picked up another book by this author for my to read list.
Book link:
of pipes, the settling of wood, the sound of footsteps… down on their luck Sam and her family accept their cousin’s generous offer to move into a long abandoned building owned by his late father. The agreement was simple, they would stay but in return they had to renovate the place. It was run down, after all, there hadn’t been a soul there for years, at least not a living one.
The gates of hell are opened and hungry ghosts are released to find food or to take revenge on those who have behaved badly. Their ancestors present offerings to feed these ghosts, as well as burn clothes, money and items they may need in the after life. But some ghosts are not so easily appeased.