Ghost is a book released on Aug. 30, 2016, written by Jason Reynolds. It is about a main character, Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw who is very good at running. But he has a traumatic past of running from his father’s violence.
One day, Ghost sees the “The Defenders”, track team he ran for fun and attracts the attention of the coach, Otis Brody. The coach right away asks him to join the team but Ghost knows he cannot because his mom would not approve. But the coach did not take no as an answer and convinced Ghost’s mom to let him join the team. Throughout the book the Coach becomes a part of his family and acts like a father to Ghost.
Ghost also dealt with bullying from Brandon Simmers in school and personal struggle with anger. So when he got in a fight with Brandon, the school bully, Coach immediately covered up for him and didn’t tell Ghost’s mom because before he joined the track team, he promised his mom that he would not get into any more trouble in order to join.
Every time Ghost gets in trouble, Coach Brody will help him out of the trouble, showing many moments of a Father-Son moment.
This book has lots of pros as well as lots of cons.
Some of the pros are that it talks about determination and the will to work harder and achieve what you want is a very good message the book talks about. It also talks about many school related stories that makes the story have some relatable moments.
Sadly, I do not recommend this book because the ending felt too open for me. It also had some unrealistic scenarios, such as Ghost not getting in any trouble after he did bad actions. The book is also really short, 180 pages, and the plot goes really fast, some readers including us think the book could have been longer and focused on more in-depth character development or explanation of the subplot. It felt really rushed while I was reading how it was jumping from one scenario to another, and making major conclusions.
There are also later books in the series, Patina, Sunny, and Lu focusing on their story and their track team life. I think all the books basically have the same story line, the main character having a traumatic experience, but later joining the track team and overcoming it. I would rate this book a 2/5 because it is a good book for beginners or young ages, but I think it is a low level for those experienced or old readers.
