Book Review: Dead on Town Line by Leslie Connor

Title: Dead on Town Line

Author: Leslie Connor

Genre: YA Books in Verse

Number of Pages: 144

Rating: B-

Recommended?: Yes

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Dead on Town Line is a slight but intriguing book in verse told from the perspective of a murdered teenage girl. Unlike The Lovely Bones, sexual violence didn’t play a role in protagonist Cassie’s death, she was killed by a girl who was jealous of her and her dim-witted brother. Trapped in the spirit realm until her murder is solved, Cassie is befriended by ghost of another young dead woman.

I liked the lyrical simplicity of this story and the the main character’s experiences of being a spirit. It’s definitely a mood piece and I wish I had gotten to know more about Cassie herself. Other than being a music aficionado there wasn’t that much development put into her character and I never really grew to care about her the way I wanted to. Overall I felt this book lacked substance, I read it in about ten minutes and all the major plot developments went by really fast. I enjoyed it but I wasn’t affected by it the way I could have been if the author had put in more detail.