“Break my heart 1,000 times” Daniel Waters

ARC (Advance Reading Copy). To be published October 16, 2012. Hyperion (Disney Book Group). 343 pp.

Ever since the Event, ghosts have appeared all over town. People have gotten used to seeing them go about their daily business and then disappear. Veronica agrees to join Kirk, her boyfriend, on a ghost hunt to see if they can determine ghost patterns. Daily, they go around town filming ghosts from those reenacting a typical daily scenario like mowing a lawn with an invisible lawnmower, to those reenacting their own deaths. Those types of ghosts creep Ronnie out, but she enjoys spending time with Kirk and learning more about this phenomenon.

History teacher August Bittner isn’t happy Ronnie and Kirk are spending time together, learning about ghosts and their habits. He fears they will discover his secret about Mary, the ghost who knocks on his door every day. Obsessed with his 16-year-old daughter Eva’s death on a leap year, and haunted by the ghost of his wife who’d committed suicide over it, he believes killing a girl the same age as Eva will bring her back to life. Soon it will be February 29th, and he knows Ronnie is the key to bringing Eva back to him forever. She will become his daughter. He will do anything to have Eva back. Anything.

Brian committed suicide in Ronnie’s house when Bittner strangled his girlfriend Mary. It has been years since her murder, but something has brought him back to the land of the living. He will do anything to make sure Bittner doesn’t gain another daughter. Anything.

Woven around the voices of Brian, Ronnie, Kirk and August, “Break my heart” is a spooky, thrilling, suspenseful and, at times, heartrending read that will leave students aged 12-18 gasping for breath eagerly turning pages. It may keep you up at night.