View source for Ghost: Blood and Fire by Phoebe Reeves Murray

{{infobox1
|title=Ghost: Blood and Fire
|author=Phoebe Reeves Murray
|reviewer=Robert James
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Illustrated novel where both the art and the prose fail to capture the imagination.
|rating=1.5
|buy=No
|borrow=No
|pages=160
|publisher=Tabella
|date=March 2010
|isbn=978-0955808869 
|cover=0955808863
|aznuk=0955808863
|aznus=0955808863
}}

Young Jennifer Rhys has been orphaned by the evil
Dark Angels. They can possess people and bite off their hands, and
there's something about living tattoos which you can take out of boxes
and paste into your skin. After growing up in an adolescent
psychiatric ward, she will grow up to go on and confront them and
fulfil her destiny. Or something like that. Between the huge amount of
poorly drawn characters, the leaden prose, and the disappointing
pictures of computerized 3-D models, I got lost a few times and
couldn't summon the interest to work out what was going on.

Rather than being a standard graphic novel, this is more of an
illustrated novella, lasting 160 pages with large print and lots of
full-page pictures. The fact it's relatively short was, if anything, a
blessed relief, because it's hard to sustain any involvement in the
book due to the way it keeps jumping around in time and the large cast
of characters with few distinguishing features.

The central story of various angels at war with each other and the
future of the world at stake is one that's been done several times
recently, but I could happily have coped with the lack of originality
in the basic premise if there'd been anything new and interesting in
the Murrays' handling of it. Speaking as someone who's read what seems
to be a few hundred teen supernatural romances over the past twelve
months, I'm definitely of the opinion that you can read lots of books
with similar plots and enjoy the later ones just as much as the
earlier ones, if those plots are well thought out. As it is, there's
nothing here which hasn't been done much better in many books and TV
series.

I'm desperately trying to find some positives here – I don't actually
particularly enjoy being critical without saying anything to balance
it out – but I'm really struggling. There's one fairly good scene
between a couple of characters who appear to be being built up for
more of a role in the coming sequel, when a young boy suffers from a
monstrously cruel act from his father. Sadly, since there's no way on
Earth I'll be ploughing through the sequel to this one, I'm unlikely
to find out what happens to the boy and his friend. There are also a
few genuinely striking illustrations – but like the good scene
mentioned above, they're outweighed by the sheer number of amateurish
and lifeless renders.

With the huge amount of excellent fiction on similar subjects
available at the moment, there's no way I could possibly recommend
that you spend your money or time on this book.  [[Unforgotten by Tohby Riddle]] is better.

Further reading suggestion: For a stunning treatment of angels on a
collision course, I'd highly recommend Lauren Kate's [[Fallen by Lauren Kate|Fallen]]. For a beautifully illustrated novel, [[The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman]] is also excellent.

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[[Category:Graphic Novels]]