Anya's Ghost

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In a lot of ways, Anya’s Ghost explores the same cultural experience Gene Yang looks at in American Born Chinese, the barrier between being true to our own identity and being accepted by the world around us. While Yang’s protagonist gets a perm and imagines himself white, Brosgol’s Anya is determined to be assimilated. Both books speak gently to the threat of alienation, to the social stigma attached to not fitting in. Both works, in the end, admonish the reader that fitting in isn’t the be-all, end-all of human—let alone high school—existence. And best of all, neither book comes off overly preachy in their lessons, which is always nice for stories that contain overt morals at book’s end.

Cute Ghost Girl: Emily's more of a mousy, spindly kind of cute, but still distinctly adorable. Until her true colors start to shine through, and she becomes more scary than cute. But then things change, and I won't tell you the exact nature of the change to avoid a spoiler, but the book gets better, more interesting, because it gets surprising and . . . creepier. I identify it as "horror" above because it actually does make it from Casper-the-friendly-ghost territory through R. L. Stine territory to something at least approaching Stephen King, for this age group, at least. It's not just Scooby scares, it's a little scary. How did Emily die? What is Emily's stake in Anya's popularity? There's a mystery to solve. And some identity issues to face for both of them, ala YA, generally. Most of the identity issues don't resolve themselves all that surprisingly, but there are some satisfying aspects of the resolution. It's a good read! At Emily's insistence, Anya dresses up and goes to a party attended by Sean and his girlfriend Elizabeth. There, Anya discovers that Sean habitually cheats on Elizabeth with her knowledge. Distraught, Anya leaves the party, which makes Emily angry and confused as she believed Anya and Sean were destined for each other. Anya later notices Emily becoming more controlling and adjusting her appearance by straightening her hair and smoking ghostly cigarettes. Anya goes to the library without Emily to research the killer; there she learns that Emily had no fiancé, but had instead murdered a young couple in their home after her unrequited love rejected her, and then died running from the authorities. Woman Scorned: Emily, after the boy she likes calls her ugly and goes off with another woman, burns their house down with both of them inside.

Nice Guy: Sean's pretty nice to Anya about her fall in Gym class even though all the kids laughed at her for it, among other nice behaviors. Subverted at Matt's party, where he's shown as a cheater who doesn't care who he hurts by sleeping around. The entire novel could be summed up as " careful what you wish for", with the typical dash of " too good to be true", " don't be slut", " family is for life", yadda, yadda, yadda... a b Tree, Brad (September 9, 2012). "Congratulations to the Harvey Award Recipients!". Harvey Awards. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016 . Retrieved February 10, 2023.

Alpha Bitch: Deconstruction with Elizabeth. If you are familiar with high school tropes you'll think she'll be one, however she doesn't have the mean-spirited personality that typically defines them. It soon becomes obvious that Anya is the nasty one and she and the other girls are jealous of Elizabeth for being all around "perfect". However, when we get to the party we find out Sean likes to sleep around with other girls and Elizabeth not only knows about it, she goes along with it, because she only feels good about herself if she and Sean are together and desperately wants to keep him in her life. All her positive traits mean very little to her and it only shows she probably has little to no self esteem. 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. You know something all of us fail to realize? We are awesome as we are. Our biggest flaw is that we try to hide that awesomeness for god know's why! Anya could have been cool and awesome if she didn't yearn to be thin like all the other popular girls and wanted all the good looking guys. Come on, nobody these days fall for looks! Personality matters, Anya. What did not work- I’m just not a fan of ya books or for that matter graphic novels. If I was going to read a ya book, I’d rather read a book of prose, not pictures as I like to imagine everything in my head.The plot is fairly simple but really works. Anya Borzakovskaya falls into a hole when skipping school and discovers it is the final resting place of a girl from 90 years ago who happens to still haunt the hole. When a piece of her skeleton makes its way out of the pit in Anya's bag, she is able to travel along. Making a promise to solve Emily-the-ghost's possible murder and bring her bones to peace, she has Emily tag along to help her cheat on tests and try to ensnare the attention of the popular boy (despite his girlfriend being in the picture).

She loves knitting, baking, and trying not to kill her plants. She hopes you are enjoying looking at her drawings! Vera Brosgol was born in Moscow, Russia in 1984 and moved to the United States when she was five. She received a diploma in Classical Animation from Sheridan College, and currently works at Laika Inc. in Portland, Oregon drawing storyboards for feature animation. Reality Has No Subtitles: Zigzagged. When Anya's mom makes syrniki pancakes, she refers to them as сы́рники, but later when she trips over Sasha's marbles and says, "Oy... bleen...my leg!" the word is fully spelled out in English. Anya Borzakovskaya is not like the other kids at her new private school as she comes from a Russian family and is known as an outsider at her new school. Anya is also embarrassed by her family and tries so desperately to fit in her new school. One day however, Anya accidentally falls down a well and there, she meets a young ghost girl named Emily Reilly who had died centuries ago. At first, Anya and Emily become fast friends, but then Anya will soon realize that having a ghost for a friend is not all sunshine and roses as it seems! Vitriolic Best Buds: Siobhan is Anya's best (human) friend... She just has a funny way of showing it.Generally speaking, of course. There are always a few works of the genre that don’t play to cliché. Thankfully, Anya’s Ghost avoids most of the usual traps of the form. There are even moments when I found myself gleefully surprised at a direction in which Vera Brosgol would choose to take her story. Anya’s Ghost, as one may have guessed by now, is about three things. A girl named Anya, high school shenanigans, and, of course, a ghost. So really, the joy is in the details of how the story all works out rather than in the genius of any of the three parts on their own. Weight Woe: Despite not being particularly overweight and even considered pretty by some characters, Anya sees herself as fat and refuses to eat her mother's homemade cheese dumplings because they're too greasy, even though she loved them when she was a little girl. Some of her dialogue implies that this is the result of being bullied as a child, as well as the elders at her church telling her she's too fat "while their ankles are spilling over their orthopedic shoes." Class Princess: Deconstructed. Elizabeth is beautiful, blonde, popular, and dating the Big Man on Campus, and Anya and the other girls hate her for being so nice and perfect. However, Beneath the Mask, she is so insecure she lets and even helps her boyfriend find other girls to cheat on her with because she’s afraid he’ll leave her if she doesn’t let him do whatever he wants. Alverson, Brigid (February 16, 2012). "Comics A.M. | Anya's Ghost, Zita the Spacegirl win Cybils Awards". Comic Book Resources. Valnet Inc. Archived from the original on September 20, 2015 . Retrieved December 19, 2016. Ordinary Highschool Student: Anya, Siobhan and their classmates. Evidently, Emily wants very badly to be one.