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Goth Girl And The Ghost Of A Mouse (2013)

by Chris Riddell(Favorite Author)

4.18 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0230759807 (ISBN13: 9780230759800)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Macmillan Children's Books

series

Goth Girl

review 1: Now I picked up Goth Girl simply for the cover. I mean it's gorgeous! And so shiny!!!!!!! =DThe story follows a precocious young lady, named Ada. Who lives in a rather odd and surprisingly existential/philosophical mansion with a crazy err sorry "Eccentric" (rich people are never crazy, just eccentric) father, with more than one odd quirks. Though he is always impeccably elegant. Ada is quite lonely after having several (oddly familiar) Governesses, she is all alone with no one her own age to play with and only the random Ghosts and hundreds of odd servants (including the scary Mrs Beat 'Em) for company.One day, she encounters a young ghost mouse named Ishmael, (HA!) who was caught in a trap and now talks to her because he can't seem to move on.Whilst her father and the cr... moreeepy as fuck game keeper, Maltravers, are busy preparing for a rather benign indoor hunt (which Ada still does not like) she resigns herself to yet another day of being lonely. Until she encounters a pair of quirky "Cabbage" siblings. (They are the offspring of THE Charles B/Cabbage!)Anyway, William has a tendency to blend in with his surroundings and his sister, Emily, is a rather talented artist. They introduce her to the "Attic Club." Kingsley the rather tall, erm "dark" and handsome chimney sweep. Arthur the Hobby Horse Groom and Ruby one of the outer pantry maids. Together they set out to figure out what the Indoor Game keeper is really up to. Along the way they encounter a sinister plot, a bunch of really odd "Dinner Guests" and a whole heap of random Classic Literature References/Puns. Ada even gets a kick ass new Governess, who has a rather bloody History.I found the book rather charming. The illustrations are cool and I kept on chuckling at the somewhat cheesy puns and cameo appearances of famous people. I also found the little mouse book, a poem parodying Gulliver's Travels, absolutely adorable. Oh and the "Footnotes" were most helpful.A clever, if cheesy, book with quite a bit of heart.
review 2: I've read Chris Riddell's other books and I have really enjoyed them, so my expectations were high for his latest novel, Goth Girl and the Ghost of Mouse. Although I found this book whimsical and enchanting, I was quite a bit disappointed at the lack of storyline. The illustrations were as always beautiful and I found the characters were charming however I found that not much happened, which I was quite disappointing.Goth Girl and the Ghost of Mouse is about Ada Goth, the only child of lord Goth who lives in an enormous mansion and is incredibly lonely as she has no friends and her father only allows her to see him once a week, as seeing her reminds him of his wife who died in a tightrope accident. So Ada wears clompy boots as her dad believes children should be heard and not seen, and this means that he can avoid her as best he can. One night Ada hears a little squeak and discovers the mouse of a ghost called Ishmael, who wants her to remove the mousetraps spread through the mansion so that no other innocent mice get hurt. When she does, however, she stumbles upon a terrible plot that Maltravers, the indoor gamekeeper, is plotting. With the help of some new friends she makes, Ada decides to foil this terribly cruel plan.I loved Ada! She's so determined, adventurous and incredibly kind. I felt incredibly sorry for her though as even though she's so well taken care of she's extremely lonely. Her dad doesn't want to see her as he says she looks like too much like her mother, and everytime he sees Ada he is reminded of his wife who fell off the roof when she was practicing tightrope-walking. I just wanted to hug Ada as you could see she really wanted to be around her dad and to have friends but she couldn't and I was so happy when she made friends with Emily and William and some other children. Her friends were all extremely sweet and lovely and it made me happy to see that Ada had someone to talk to.Although I adored Ada and the other quirky characters, I did find that there didn't really seem to be much of a plot. I know Ishmael the mouse was supposed to be a big part of it, yet he was barely mentioned and at the end, the gamekeeper didn't seem to be as evil as I first thought. It just didn't seem like there was much of a story. The illustrations were gorgeous as well as the book's colour and page edges, however without it I feel the book would've been a lot more dull.Ghost Girl and the Ghost of Mouse definitely contained some quirky characters, I chuckled several times and the illustrations brought the book to life, however I just felt like not much happened. I think perhaps younger children would get more appreciation out of this and it would be enough of a plot for them. I, however, did find myself slightly disappointed. It was a cute and quirky story, though! less

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