Amazing! Extraordinary book hangover! What else can you say when a book just leaves you completely exhausted at the end? Paper Valentine hit all the high points of a good ghost story, a heartbreaking relationship novel, and the edge of your seat excitement of City Confidential. I was impressed, awed, and overcome with the raw emotion of this story. There is more than one way to be haunted, as Hannah finds out. One is to live with the ghost of your dead best friend, another is to blame yourself for everything that happened to her and you since her death, and then there are vengeful ghosts who need your help catching their killer. Unfortunately Hannah is haunted by all three and its driving her crazy.

The thematic content of this book is DEEP. I meant really heavy stuff: bulimia, depression, murder, relationships, fitting in and forgiveness. If someone had told me before I picked this up, I would have said there was no way an author could do justice to all those themes in one book. Boy was I wrong. This story is a raw emotional rollercoaster of teenage life and I was completely hooked. Of course nothings perfect, there were a couple things that I think Brenna Yovanoff added because they added a sense of creepiness and unease but not any actual plot, like the plague of dead birds scattering the streets. The pace is also really slow at first. Imagine watching City Confidential and waiting through all the back story to finally find out who did it, why and see the pictures, that’s what this book is like. Slow isn’t bad because it makes you curious, makes you go back and pick the book up because you aren’t anywhere close to done with it. When “BAM” all of a sudden you are in the thick of the action and its a heartstopping race to the finish.

Though the content deals with a serial killer, the murders are more disturbing than they are gruesome. If you’re squeamish about blood its not a gory book, but blood is used as an effect, to get a reaction, but Yovanoff only uses it when necessary. Mainly you’re like a passenger inside Hannah’s brain and dealing with the soul sucking uncertainty of how life should continue after losing her best friend, Lillian, and blaming herself a little bit for Lillian’s death. Its amazing how Lillian becomes a character herself, because it helps you work through the stages of grief: Why did she do it, Didn’t she understand it was selfish, How could she do this to me? Only Lillian has those answers and she slowly comes to terms with them herself as the book goes on

I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone, but would be cautious with younger teens due to the nature of the murders and supernatural happenings. I think this book should be an essential read for any teenager struggling with fitting in, depression, or loss simply because of the emotional mess Hannah starts out as and her strength in starting to find her own place in the world. On a completely random side note, Fat Chance by Leslea Newman is another amazingly raw book that deals with eating disorders and the fallout from making a choice like that. Also an excellent and mandatory read for teens.