Name: Ghostopolis
ISBN: 9780545210270

Doug TenNapel

When he is accidentally transported to the spirit world by a washed-out ghost wrangler, Garth Hale discovers that the world's evil ruler wants his unique powers, so he teams up with some unlikely allies to find a way home.

Ghostopolis

Sarah Sammis

Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel, a tween graphic novel was on my wishlist but I read it early when it was shortlisted for the Cybils.

Garth Hale is a critically ill boy, pulled accidentally into the afterlife by a ghost wrangler named Frank Gallows. Like Danny Fenton, Garth now finds himself having some ghostly powers, except he's stuck and doesn't know how to get home. He also doesn't know for sure that he wants to go home since he's probably dying anyway.

So like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Garth has to go to the central city, Ghostopolis to hopefully find the help he needs to go home. Along the way he befriends the bones of a horse, a boy who claims to be his grandfather and ultimately the man who accidentally sent him here.

Ghostopolis has great graphics. They're colorful and surreal and sometimes absurd. There's a logic to how the afterlife works and political divisions, a corrupt government and uneasy truces.

It's a good book for tweens who enjoy Gothic horror, ghost stories and time travel.

Ghostopolis

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