#33--Texas Gothic

Bibliographic Information

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore. Delacorte Books for Young Readers. (2011).

Price: $17.99 for hardback

Pages: 416 for hardback

Plot Summary

Seventeen-year-old Amy Goodnight, with her help of her scatterbrained sister Phin, agrees to help look after her Aunt Hyacinth’s farm for the summer. Although the sisters agree to split the chores Amy knows that running the farm will be hard work as her sister promises to look after the flora leaving Amy with the fauna— a herd of stubborn goats and a pack of unruly dogs. Soon, however, Amy has more difficult problems on her hands once she meets their unwelcoming if rather attractive rancher neighbor. He makes no disguise of his feelings toward the Goodnights who he thinks are all a bunch of bizarre meddlers. While dealing with the unkind neighbor is unsettling Amy’s problems become downright dangerous when a ghost interrupts her sleep in the middle of the night by sucking the warmth out of her body.

Amy has tried to avoid the supernatural ever since the day she and Finn went in search of a dangerous ghost. While this would be easy for most people to do it is nigh impossible for Amy as all the Goodnights have supernatural abilities. Phin is a genius inventor with a knack for creating paranormal devices, Aunt Hyacinth runs a magical herb business, and Amy’s cousin is a psychic. Amy never wants to discover with her supernatural gift is as she is too busy running interference between the normal everyday world and her unusual relatives. But with a dangerous ghost on the loose, not to mention a suspicious, hot cowboy, Amy may have to return to her supernatural roots to make everything right.

Critical Evaluation

While Texas Gothic may not be a literary masterpiece it is certainly fun to read. Rosemary Clement-Moore has a created an intriguing supernatural world that runs parallel to the world we all know. Readers will love Aunt Hyacinth’s products that do everything from clearing heads to soothing aches and pains as well as Phin’s scientific devices. They will also be intrigued with Clement-Moore’s creation of ghosts. For example, ghosts within the world she’s created can only manifest by sucking the warmth out of a human body. Interestingly, both good and bad ghosts do this even though it can potentially kill the human they are trying to contact. Another fascinating part of the novel is Clement-Moore’s exploration of archeological techniques. Admittedly, I have no background in this field but her description of a dig site and the events that occur there seems accurate.

While the book was fun to read it had a few flaws. The plot dragged in some places as Clement-Moore dedicated much of the book to the archeological dig that occurred on the McCulloch ranch. As a result, the pacing of the novel sometimes seemed off as the mystery surrounding Amy’s ghost was put on hiatus for other plot points. Perhaps the element that bothered me the most was Amy’s descriptions of her neighbor, Ben McCulloch. While this isn’t necessarily an unforgivable thing it did make me feel embarrassed to be reading the novel. For example, when she first meets him she notes that “just because he looked great in the saddle did not mean that he wasn’t an axe murderer…I stood transfixed by the flex of the young man’s legs, the effortless shift of his weight as he controlled the horse…” (p. 16 & 17). Perhaps this is harsh but that description sounds like it came straight out of a romance novel with Fabio on the cover. True, the book does get better but Amy seems to remain in this half-intelligent, half-ditzy stage which could annoy some readers.

Reader’s Annotation

When Amy Goodnight promises to help look after her aunt’s farm she has no idea that the neighbors consist of a creepy ghost and a hot cowboy.

About the Author

Author Rosemary Clement-Moore has written five young adult novels to date. Before she was a full-time author she worked at Chuck E. Cheese. She prefers writing as she gets to play Guitar Hero every day. She is currently working on Spirit and Dust, another novel about a girl who can speak to the dead.

To learn more about Rosemary Clement-Moore visit her site here.

Genre

Mystery, Paranormal fiction, Romance

Readalikes

The Mediator series by Meg Cabot

·         Also about a girl who can see ghosts & also contains a hot cowboy

Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst

·         Another tongue-in-cheek paranormal book

Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore

·         Another humorous paranormal novel by the same author as Texas Gothic

Spirit and Dust by Rosemary Clement-Moore

·         The sequel to Texas Gothic

Tags

17 yr. old, Anthropology, Cattle ranching, Excavation, Farming, Goats, Land rights, Redheads, sophomore in college, Texas, Texas history

Awards Won/Lists On

2011—Kirkus Reviews’ Best Teen Books of the Year’

2012—ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults

Professional Reviews

Booklist
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers' Weekly
School Library Journal
The Horn Book
VOYA

Booktalk Ideas

Family Talents (p. 175)

·         Psychic

·         Artists

·         Gatekeeper?

Differences (p. 237)

·         Going to college and living a normal life

·         Embracing her magical side

Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness

This book can be used in discussions about self-esteem, finding one’s purpose in life, and the disconnect between society and family.

Reading Level/Interest Level

Reading Level: 5^th grade

Interest Level: 9^th-12^th grade

These levels are according to AR Bookfinder

Challenge Issues

This book includes the following potentially controversial elements:

·         Attempted murder

·         Discussion of afterlife

·         ESP

·         Ghosts

·         Love spells

·         Profanity

·         Psychics

·         Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain

·         Talk of breasts

·         Witchcraft

Librarians can point out that while this book contains supernatural elements it is also a coming-of-age story and addresses how to be true to yourself even when it is deemed not popular by society.

Why Was This Included?

I decided to include this novel because of my presentation on ghosts. I wanted to have a relatively recent novel to include. I also thought it sounded like a lot of fun. I mean, who doesn’t want to read a book that has plenty of humor and a good mystery in it?