Vera Brosgol

Fantoma Aniei

Anya's Ghost

rin 🐇

tori 👻

"You may look normal like everyone else, but you're not. Not on the inside."

4.5
I've been meaning to read Anya's Ghost for the past 3 years and I finally got my hands on a copy.
I wish it could've been about 200 pages longer as I wanted to see more on Anya. She's a really interesting main character with a duality that just makes sense, especially since she's a teenager. I love how aware she is of her own flaws.
The illustration is just beautiful, fun and incredibly immersive, I couldn't put the book down until I was done reading. I'm really glad I got the chance to finally read it this year and I plan on reading more of Vera Brosgol as soon as I can.
I wish I could've read this at 15, for my own personal reasons, but reading it now as an adult, aware of my teenage years, was interesting nonetheless.

Reiza H

Finally got this awsum graphic novel made by Vera Brosgol!

Saya sebenernya ga begitu seneng baca graphic novel (well tergantung temanya sih) tapi yang ini pengecualian! Buku ini resmi saya nobatkan jadi graphic novel terbaik versi saya setelah Laika. Saya bahkan nemu buku ini ga sengaja. Pertama liat di Togemas, saya kira ini cuma sebatas novel teenlit biasa dengan cerita yang biasa. Kebetulan, bukunya kebuka. Eeh pas dibuka ternyata KOMIK. 

Darisana, nyangkut deh ane pengen beli bukunya. 

Bercerita tentang Anya, seorang gadis SMA yang -yah- punya masalah seperti anak SMA lainnya. Dia benci dengan kehidupannya, benci dengan keluarganya yang -sepertinya- terlalu memperhatikan dia, benci dengan background Rusia nya, benci dengan temannya, dan lain lain dan lain lain. 

Intinya, dia benci kenyataan yang ada mengenai dia.

Tapi apa jadinya kalau dia dipertemukan oleh sesosok hantu yang ternyata punya masalah mengenai kenyataan itu sendiri? 

(view spoiler)[no, i'll not reveal any more spoiler here haha. (hide spoiler)] 

What makes me feels so comfortable reading this is that terjemahannya PAS! Salut buat penerjemahnya, Bahasa gaulnya ga "nanggung". Jadi kerasa bener2 kebawa ke dunia anak mudanya Anya berikut jokes-jokes nya yang khas ("Tangan lu kenapa? Cebok belom cuci tangan yah?" :)) ) Kunci dari rame enggaknya novel grafis selain dari temanya salah satunya menurut saya ya dari percakapan-percakapannya si karakter. Hasil terjemahan harusnya ga mengubah suasana/pikiran yang hendak disampaikan oleh si pembuat cuma gara-gara terjemahannya kurang pas kan? naah hal kaya gini saya pikir GA ADA di buku ini. Salut! 

Yak jadi kesimpulannya, saya kasih lima bintang buat Novel Grafis yang awsum ini karena alurnya yang apik, twist yang tidak disangka-sangka, dan atmosfir cerita yang bisa mengaduk-aduk suasana. Ohiya satu lagi, gambarnya keren! 

Highly recommended deh pokoknya! (y)

(p.s. Warning! hanya khusus boleh dibaca oleh pembaca yang sudah akil baligh ya hahaha)

Marz 

Truthfully I'd give it a 3.5 rating.The artwork was absolutely gorgeous and I actually really liked the colour scheme used. However while it had a really cute storyline it wasn't anything ground-breaking, alot of the themes shown and the plot itself I've seen done before. It was an enjoyable book none the less.

Sarah Sammis

Izabela Borges

It’s a very good story. The character development is there, and it’s cool to see Anya find herself instead of just keep “following the herd”. They treated bullying with care enough for a short story. My only problem is the ending, it felt a bit rushed on the resolution part… could’ve taken a few more pages before ending, maybe even a bit more creepy would’ve been welcomed.

chloe rae

3.5*


Super fun! I wasn't the biggest fan of the MC. There was body shaming and some slut-shaming in conversation that was mainly just highlighting the MC's insecurities but was still definitely NOT OK. I don't think she grew that much over the span of the novel, or at least I wanted way more from her. Either way, fun story but not a new favorite.

arth

Melissa Palmer

Book #81 Read in 2012
Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

This is a graphic novel which usually isn't my genre of choice but I like this one. In this book, Anya, a teenager, falls into a well and finds a set of bones there. There is a ghost who is haunting the well. When rescued, Anya realizes she has brought a part of a finger bone out of the well with her so the ghost is now following her around--at school, at home etc. Anya does see some perks to have a ghostly friend, especially one who can look at test papers of classmates for a test Anya didn't study for. But the ghost has her own ulterior motive and Anya needs to confront the ghost in order to protect herself and her family.

This was a very quick read and I think that both boy and girl readers would like it. There was enough of a plot for me that the graphic novel format did not bother me. I enjoyed this book.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

Marian L

B Sai Sushma

Well, well, well. I am not a huge fan of the supernatural genre, but, this one, this one was really a satisfying read. The story follows our girl Anya who is a first generation immigrant from Russia, and how she gets attached to a ghost. The twist was kinda nice, and the journey Anya goes through in her character development arc is worth a mention. The only issue I had was near the finale. I thought Anya's understanding of herself and her origins was somewhat shallow, and I would have loved to know what happened with some of the other characters. But I understand that not all stories need to be resolved, so that's something I respect the author for. The art style is cute, easy on the eyes, and it takes a charming tonality. Overall a very nice Halloween read, tbh. I might have read it too late.

alexandra

3.5/5

i just started getting into graphic novels and i think they may be my new favorite thing. ANYA'S GHOST was insightful, quick, and a bit creepy.

i love how anya develops throughout the novel. it made me a bit sad in the beginning how embarrassed she was to be from russia and how she'd often get bullied. anya tried so hard to change the way she is, but girl, YOU SHOULD GO AN LOVE YOURSELF. (sorry, i had to. i felt j.biebs right there.) the whole book basically follows how anya changes and realizes that she should be proud of who she is and embrace that.

the story is told an equally adorable (because of the art) and creepy (because of the GHOST) way. there were parts that actually kept me on edge and the plot twist took me by surprise. i liked how short, quick, and to-the-point this book was.

overall, i really enjoyed this novel! it wasn't super life changing or emotional, but still had moments that were heartfelt. i've been in a few reading slumps lately and just figured that graphic novels are perfect ways to solve those slumps, so i'll definitely be picking more up in the future!

Matthew Royal

I love little stories like this. Good style, enjoyable way to pass a flight.

menna

I really liked the art style and plot! It was fun to read

aisha

This graphic novel was a bit too simple for me. I liked the simplicity of the art but the story was much too predictable. I was also a bit shocked by how early the ghost came up in the story. I loved the art and the characters. If it wasn't for the art I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. The scary or eerie vibe wasn't as prominent as I expected it to be. Although in my opinion it could've been a lot better, the art makes up for most of it.

Natalia Hernandez

** spoiler alert **
           Reseña en español en mi blog: https://natified.com/2017/01/24/2017-...

This was a birthday present from my family. I read it in 30 minutes. :D

Anya is a russian immigrant in the United States. She's in high-school and has to deal with all the things teenagers deal with in high-school plus not having many friends, people making fun of her accent, falling for the popular kid. Everything changes when she falls down a hole in the woods and finds the ghost of a girl who died there 90 years before. 

SPOILERS?

They get out of the hole and the ghost goese with Anya to her house, marvelled at how much the world has changed since she was alive, so Anya lets the ghost 'live' with her, go with her to school, they hang out and become friends. But not everything is super duper awesome and things change fast. It's awesome. 

I really liked the story, it's simple but filled with details that make it very rich. I loved the color palette too (oh, this is a graphic novel), because it makes you concentrate on the story, wanting to know how the ghost girl died and how they're going to resolve what happens in the present. 

It's one of those stories I'll def. go back to.

Teagan <3

“You can't judge them! No one has the right to decide who gets to live or die. Not even you.“

TW death, bullying, body shaming

I was under the impression that this was going to be a cute tale about a schoolgirl and a ghost and oh wow was I wrong. 

Don’t get me wrong, this is an incredibly cute art style and for the most part the story itself is very cute but it’s also so much more than that. 

I truly loved Emily as a character, having her help Anya with schoolwork and making friends and building relationships was such a good plot device. 

The twist I expected in their relationship was Emily helping Anya realise all she had to do was be herself.

The plot twist I actually got was so much more than that and I genuinely did not see it coming. 

I really loved so much about this book, the ending however felt rushed in my opinion but I feel like that isn’t really a big issue.

Melanie Richards

Reyna Wren

** spoiler alert **
           Technically, I would give this 1 or 2 stars if it didn't have the nice illustrations...
So, Anya's Ghost. Firstly, I was not a huge fan of Anya herself. She smokes (and thinks it makes her look cool). She gets bad grades. She cheats in school. She skips class. She is described even in happy portions of the book as "Negative". She hates others simply because they are doing well in school and are nice people. She tries to steal someone else's boyfriend. She forgets about her only friend. She is judgmental and thinks that people deserve to be bullied.
And this is the character that we're supposed to like? By the end of the novel, most of these issues have not been dealt with, and the ones that have been are dealt with poorly. She quits smoking, not because she doesn't care if she looks cool, but because she doesn't think it makes her look as cool as she once thought it would. She goes back to a friend who encourages her to smoke and skip classes. She acknowledges that she wants to be other people, but is this really supposed to fix her self-esteem issues? She realizes that the girl she hates has some issues of her own, but Anya doesn't use this information to realize that the girl is also human and should not be hated, but instead walks away and completely forgets her, while drowning in her own disappointment over romantic issues. She does say something nice to the boy who she said deserved to be bullied, "Impressing a bunch of snooty teenagers is a pretty lame life goal to have," but this seems to be the 
  ONLY GOAL ANYA HAS.


Narrative complaint: How do the people at her church really feel about her? "You won that beauty pageant at the church, remember?" P3 Anya's mother tells Anya this at the beginning of the book, so obviously the people at church think she's pretty. But then... (about her church) "It's a bunch of old people who didn't bother to learn English, telling me I'm too fat..." P97 These two stories don't match up, unless Anya's mother or Anya was lying. They didn't have reason to lie in either situation, so they probably wouldn't. So, why don't these stories line up? And why is this storyline never further explained or concluded? Anya never makes any sort of definitive move about her church going, and never actually discusses why she doesn't want to go with her mom.

Anyway, here's an overview:
Pros:
- Pretty artwork
- A vaguely intriguing storyline

Cons:
- Anya is a horrible character. (See section on Anya above.)
- The book is rather unrealistic and offers no real solutions to the problems the characters face.
- Basically, the story is not very good, and provides no morals.

Yay.

Irem

3,5/5

Rus kökenli liseli bir kızın ergenlik döneminin en sevimsiz döneminde hayatının kesiştiği bir hayalet ile geçen bir kaç gününün anlatısı. Bence Anya ve hayaletimiz kadar ilgi çekici çokça karakter var, keşke bu ikiliden biraz onlara da kaysaymış hikaye. Konu itibariyle daha çok genç yetişkin olsa da, hem anlatımı hem de çizimleriyle oldukça eğlenceli bir çizgi roman. Vakit geçirmelik bir şeyler arıyorsanız mutlaka bakın.

Amanda Kordeliski

Had more mature content than I was expecting. This GN is on the recommended list for both middle and high schools but after reading it I will only be recommending it to 8th graders and more mature 7th graders. Contains a lot of smoking, a bit of drinking, a lot of cutting class and some swearing.

Flavia Louise

gave it a 4 but its more of a 3.75 to me!!
really fun and easy read, the story is cute and spooky and captivating and the illustrations are amazing. i enjoyed it a lot!!!!

Eszter Baranyi

It was better than i had expected. At first I didn't like the main character, but I changed my mind throught the book. The others were likable. Emily was well developed, and the plot was fast paced. The arstyle was pretty

Fantoma Aniei

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