Review of the book Ruined by Paula Morris / Everything bee knows

Ruined by Paula Morris

First of all this book was given to me by my sweetest friend. I would like to say thanks to her for lending her book and letting me read a whimsical story of which I’m going to review in detail below.

Ruined as the name suggests, this book is absolutely based on stories which has a very intricate and complex background which creates present problems. The protagonist is a sixteen year old girl Rebecca whose life comes to a turn when her dad decides to go out of the country in china for work and sends her to her close to a stranger aunty in New Orleans. She had no clue what New Orleans was going to be like, how she’s going to make new friends. But in New Orleans things were much more troublesome for Rebecca. The hierarchy in schools and society made Rebecca isolate from the whole scene. But one time when she goes to sneak on her school friends at a cemetery, where she was restricted to go by her aunt, she gets dashed on to Lisette (the ghost) and

from there on the main story begins.

The story in the beginning tells the background of Rebecca her relationship with her dad and with out her mom. Also describes her life in New York with her friends. Then a drastic change and she has to go at her aunt’s place.  The story starts taking a pace when the cemetery scene upsurges. The scene of her knowing the ghost and spending time with her knowing the truth was a good scene. Then comes the entry of Anton which brings a lil' romantic flavour to the story. As the story goes on progressing it becomes a bit predictive as everything is some or the other way related to Rebecca. But there are some cliff hangers at the end of the chapters which helps as a page turner. The climax is when the curse gets revealed which really doesn’t let you to keep the book down. Overall the story was good and nicely written and nothing could be flawed out of the whole scene.

The characters were relatable and everyday sort of common people which u meet. I really liked Rebecca, Aurelia (Rebecca’s cousin sister), Lisette (ghost) and Toby’s (brother of Marianne Sutton) character they looked more real. This book also helped understand the culture of New Orleans a part of America which was unknown to me as well as many Americans. The Mardi gras parade, racial discrimination, slave migrants, etc were a part of the story and therefore gave a historical touch to it.

Though the front cover convey it being a ghost story it’s not anything as such. The story has a ghost but it’s a friendly type of ghost which doesn’t scare you off but it has a full-fledged suspense and thriller scenes which are interestingly done by the author. If someone is expecting a ghost story then they'd disappointed. But the story in itself is much better and can make you have a good time reading it.

I would recommend this book to everyone who loves to read young adult genre novels, great fan of stories which historical background and those who love suspense. I will give this book a 3 and a half honey bees.

🐝🐝🐝1/2 honeybees :)