Larger	Being Dead Author: Vivian Vande Velde
	Book Information Publisher: Magic Carpet Book Type: Mass Market Paperback Rating: 10 ISBN-13: 9780152052409 - ISBN-10: 0152052402 Publication Date: 2003 Pages: 203 Book Reviews

From School Library Journal
Gr 7 Up
Horror fans will love these seven deliciously creepy tales featuring ghosts, cemeteries, suicides, murders, and other death-related themes. Most of the selections deal with everyday teens in seemingly ordinary situations; readers will settle in, confident that they know what to expect, only to receive a spine-tingling jolt as they hit one of the collection's many gruesome twists and turns. The first story, "Drop by Drop," shows the author's macabre imagination at its best. Sixteen-year-old Brenda is understandably disgruntled when her parents whisk her away from her friends and her life in the city. Worse, their new house in a small town appears to be haunted. In one shivery scene, a disembodied hand touches her through her waterbed mattress, and Brenda spends the night on the couch. Clues turn up: a missing little girl, a foul smell from the woods, a dripping ghost. But just when it seems that Brenda will solve the mystery, the truth comes out -- and most readers will be reeling with shock. In another story, a boy killed in Vietnam returns to haunt the father who forced him to enlist -- or does he? In "October Chill," a terminally ill girl falls for the ghost of a teen from Colonial times. None of the stories are gory, but they are all quite dark.

Recommend this title to teens who don't want happy-ever-after endings. --Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.