Review--Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen

I DON'T BELIEVE IN GHOSTS. UNFORTUNATELY, THEY BELIEVE IN ME...

Let me set the record straight. My name is Charlotte Silver and I'm not one of those paranormal-obsessed freaks you see on TV…no, those would be my parents, who have their own ghost-hunting reality show. And while I'm usually roped into the behind-the-scenes work, it turns out that I haven't gone unnoticed. Something happened on my parents' research trip in Charleston—and now I'm being stalked by some truly frightening other beings. Trying to fit into a new school and keeping my parents' creepy occupation a secret from my friends—and potential boyfriends—is hard enough without having angry spirits whispering in my ear. All I ever wanted was to be normal, but with ghosts of my past and present colliding, now I just want to make it out of high school alive…

Mara Purnhagen's Past Midnight was quite the interesting read. I was going for a good ghost story and got one, just not what I had expected. Really I had an idea in mind without having read the cover back yet, so it was silly on my part.

The story was good. Not a whole lot of supernatural, but a good dose of paranormal! Charlotte is your typical teen, other than the fact that her parents are essentially ghost "debunkers", they have a show trying to explain a house being not haunted by ghosts but memories. Complicated at first, but they explain it somewhat easily.

The pacing was decent. We get to see what Charlotte's chaotic life is like and she's finally been given a dose of normalcy with her senior high school year by staying at one school for the whole year. She begins to make friends and there's even potential boyfriends walking about. But then things go straight back to the paranormal, when their brand new house suddenly becomes haunted by ghosts from the past.

The story was definitely not something I was expecting, yet it was still good. Like I said, I love a good ghost story and believe in ghosts myself with never having had an experience. But I've always been fascinated with ghosts, even though some of the shows out there always seem fake to me, I still believe.

Overall I give this one 4/5 stars! Will definitely be reading the next one!