Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780142409121
ISBN: 014240912X
Label: Puffin
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: Puffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 176
Publication Date: 2007-10-18
Publisher: Puffin
Reading Level: Young Adult
Studio: Puffin

When Ben’s girlfriend, Marly, dies, he feels his life is over. What could possibly matter now when Marly is gone? So when Valentine’s Day approaches, it makes sense that this day that was once so meaningful to Ben leaves him feeling bitter and hollow. But then Marly shows up—or at least her ghost does—along with three others spirits. Now Ben must take a painful journey through Valentine’s Days past, present, and future, and what he discovers will change him forever.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Not as good as it should have been
Comment: I'm not really that big a fan of Charles Dickens, but I am a huge fan of David Levithan and Brian Selznick. I was expecting a modernization of A Christmas Carol with a twist and the amazing dialogue and true-to-life characters that I expect from Levinthan. What I didn't expect was the cheesy nearly word-for-word retelling of a book I never really liked in the first place.

It should really come as no surprise that Marly is dead, the victim of a cancer that claims the lives of far too many people at far too young an age. In the beginning, the book started off strong with the heart-felt longing Ben has for his lost girlfriend and the pain it has caused not only for Ben but also for those who love him the most.

Yet, as the story continues with the appearance of Marly and the three other ghosts--the Spirits of Love Past, Present and Future--the story goes from heartbreaking to overkill. Instead of letting a natural flow come from a great beginning, Levithan forces his characters to fit into the neat little mold that Dickens had created more than a hundred years before.

While the end looked like it was about to take a turn for the better and have a more modern application of the timeless moral the original story outlined, the characters were again restricted by the near verbatim retelling. (I'm afraid if I say more on this, I will give away the ending.)

I know this review sounds harsh, but the book really wasn't that bad of a read. The story really does teach a good lesson about learning from the past while still living for the future, and that love really can pull us through some pretty awful things. The illustrations are also very classic Selznick--and he does pull off giving the original etchings for the Dickens tale a modern twist. Best of all, the book is a short, fast-passed read that can fill up a lazy afternoon. But overall, the book falls far short of my expectations of what a great author like Levithan can pull off.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Modern, Teenage Take On Dickens's Christmas Carol
Comment: As a fan of David Levithan's BOY MEETS BOY, I was anxiously awaiting the chance to read his latest, MARLY'S GHOST. Anyone familiar with Levithan's work knows what I'm talking about when I say that he wields words with the precision of a surgeon utilizing a scalpel. He can put you in someone else's head and make you feel like you've always been there. He can lift you up or shoot you down with a carefully crafted sentence. I'm happy to report that his most recent book does not disappoint.

As the title suggests, MARLY'S GHOST is a modern, teenage take on Charles Dickens's A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The twist is that it's set around Valentine's Day, not Christmas. Ben and Marly are the perfect couple at their high school. When Marly gets ill and dies, Ben is convinced he'll never recover from the loss. Just as his counterpart, Ebenezer Scrooge, turns from Christmas, Ben turns from love. He spurns his best friend, Fred, refusing to join him for their annual anti-Valentine's Day party. He verbally abuses a gay couple (amusingly bearing the names Tiny and Tim) who attempt to get Ben to buy a Valentine's Day flower. And he falls deeper and deeper into a brooding depression that takes him farther and farther from the people who care most for him.

Even a passing familiarity with the Dickens story tells you what happens next. Marly's ghost visits Ben (her "chain" is a mammoth charm bracelet she wore in life, which Ben now unknowingly uses to tie her to this world) and announces that three spirits will visit him so that he might remember the meaning of love. Ben is then taken on a tour of love from the past, the present and the future, and (I don't think it's spoiling much to reveal) he returns to his life a changed man.

But don't dismiss this as a simple parody or pastiche of Dickens. Levithan very thoughtfully crafts his characters, granting them heart and heartache. You sympathize with Ben's loss from the very beginning in a way you never felt for Dickens's Scrooge. The sundering of Tiny Tim into two boys who are very much in love is a smart and fascinating move.

The only criticism I would raise is the anachronistic language that mimics Dickens's original dialogue but seems very out of place in this modern story. True, other classic works (such as Shakespeare) have been set in modern times while retaining the original language and still maintained their integrity. But Levithan jumps back and forth from the Dickensian discourse to contemporary teen speak, which is a bit distracting. However, this minor complaint should not deter anyone from this very earnest and touching story.

--- Reviewed by Brian Farrey

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Customer Rating:
Summary: may be better than the original...
Comment:
"I repeated it now- I love you. I love you. Please. I love you. Then it came- that one small gasp. We waited for the next one, but there was no next one. You expect death to bring some new form of punctuation, but there it is: one small gasp. Period."

Ben is a 16 year old man grieving the loss of his first love, Marly, a woman who died from cancer. He was with her until the end, and those moments leading up to her death still haunt him, so much so that he feel that he can't go on with her months after her death. His loss wells to such an intensity it causes him to lash out to his family, friends, and even strangers with heated animosity. On the day before Valentine's day he even tells off a couple by the names of Tiny and Tim (the school's only gay couple) proclaiming that love is pointless and other such nonsense. It is obvious that his depression has taken a toll on him.

That evening in a moment of sheer loneliness he is visited by the ghost of Marly, who tells him his ties on him are weighing her down in the afterlife and that he has to move on. He admits he wants to die, so she tells him that he will be visited by three ghosts over the next few nights... if the story sounds familiar that's because it is a retelling of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"... only set in contemporary times and with a Valentine's day theme instead.

It is true that Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol", but to me it feels as if it were meant purely as a study for David Levithan to use to pen this book. Now, I freely admit I have never been the biggest fan of Dickens' style of writing but I have read "A Christmas Carol" (in class, I wouldn't have finished it had I not been forced to). So I do know the story. However, it feels that Levithan's retelling is so much more suitable than Dickens' ever was. We really do feel Ben's anguish whereas before it was difficult to sympathize with Scrooge. His heartache seems far more definite than Scrooge's ever was, and the character is more likeable, even is he is difficult, at times.

I enjoyed this retelling, short as it was. It feels more fleshed out, somehow... perhaps because Ben's revelations come out of the fact that he was near suicidal at times, and that grief just reached out to me. The end seemed rushed, however that did not take away from the story. This was a pleasant read.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Love May Be Humbug...But 'Marly's Ghost' Is Quite the Opposite
Comment: Sixteen-year-old Ebeneezer "Ben" Scrooge, was always a die-hard Valentine's Day fan. Bringing his girlfriend, Marly, flowers and chocolates. But all that changes when Marly dies from a brain tumor. After three-years together, Ben doesn't feel that he can go on, and is angered by the fact that everyone around him is living their life as if nothing tragic has happened. What angers him even more is Valentine's Day. Suddenly, Ben wonders how a stupid, commercialized holiday can mean so much to people. So he boycotts it. But Marly's spirit obviously isn't going to allow Ben to ruin this holiday, or go on living angry. For on the eve of Valentine's Day, Marly's ghost arrives, bringing along several other ghosts that will haunt him within a 24-hour period - the Ghost of Love Past, the Ghost of Love Present, and the Ghost of Love Future - that will show Ben that the way he's been acting is doing nothing more than dishonoring Marly's memory, and making him...a scrooge.

Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL has been one of my favorite books since I was very young. So when I heard about David Levithan's MARLY'S GHOST, I didn't think that it could compare. I was wrong. Levithan's MARLY'S GHOST is a wonderful "remix" of the story A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and easily brings Dickens' ideas into a modern day scene that will leave readers enchanted. The storyline is sad - as is A CHRISTMAS CAROL - and the descriptions of Marly's sickness bring to mind scenes from Nicholas Sparks' A WALK TO REMEMBER, yet end on a happy note - as did Sparks' effort. Levithan has created characters that embody updated versions of all of Dickens' previous characters, even including a modern day Tiny Tim - that is actually two gay freshman named Tiny and Tim. The storyline, on its own, is wonderful, and keeps the reader turning the pages until the very end, while Brian Selznick's illustrations bring the spirit of A CHRISTMAS CAROL to life. An inspiring, emotion-charged story, that will warm the hearts of all readers - even the biggest cynics about love.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

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