The Moment Collector by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Pages: 256
Publishers: Orchard Books
Released: 7th of August 2014

"The yard of this house is a graveyard of moments and everything left behind is a clue. And I am here to dig."

There's a ghost haunting 208 Water Street. She doesn't know who she was, or why she's still here. She does know that she is drawn to Maggie, the new girl in town, and her friends - beautiful, carefree Pauline and Liam, the boy who loves her.

But the ghost isn't all that's lurking in Gill Creek... Someone is killing young girls all across the county. Can the ghost keep these three friends safe? Or does she have another purpose?

What I Have To Say 

 My main problem with this book was that it was trying too hard to be the Lovely Bones. Everything was trying to be poignant, especially the bits from the point of view of the ghost. I think it would have been okay if it hadn't be so obvious that the author was aiming for that. 

The main character was all right, though she seemed to lose a lot of her personality when she met Pauline and Liam. Her role really felt like a narrator than an actual character because I don't feel she'd have made much difference to the plot if she was replaced with any other character. 

It was a nice story, very slow but enjoyable to read. But it didn't really have enough substance, especially in the first half. Pauline and Liam as well as some of the other characters in the town were interesting enough that they made up for the lack of character in Maggie. 

Read if you want a sedate story that got some nice imagery, not if you want something fast and gripping.