Haunted (The Mediator, Book 5)

From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10-Suze Simon, a mediator who can see and communicate with the dead, begins her junior year of high school in Carmel, CA. On her first day, she runs into Paul Slater, another mediator who is the drop-dead-gorgeous new guy at school, and the subject of Suze's nightmares due to the fact that he tried to kill her over the summer. The protagonist has other things to contend with as well: her boyfriend happens to be a ghost who lives in her room because that was the site of his murder 150 years ago. He has been standoffish lately and Suze can't understand why. Also, her stepbrother brings a new friend home from college, and the friend's dead brother tags along. Suze has to help him to come to terms with being dead. This fifth installment in the series (the first four of which were published under the name Jenny Carroll, Cabot's pseudonym) is full of high school concerns (student elections, friends, cliques, homework) and family issues (stepsiblings, getting grounded) while also dealing with the supernatural and Suze's powers. Cabot successfully melds these strands into an interesting story with enough romance and suspense to keep readers turning the pages-and leaves enough unanswered questions for the next book. Fans of the series or of Cabot's other work will enjoy this title.Kimberly L. Paone, Elizabeth Public Library, NJCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Susannah Simon is not a normal 16-year-old. As a mediator, she can talk to, touch, and even have a crush on ghosts . . . a certain nineteenth-century ghost in particular. Classmate Paul Slater, who shares her talent but is of dubious moral character, insists that Susannah hang her heart on the living, specifically him. This harsh abridgment leaves too many background and plot holes to keep listeners satisfied. Alanna Ubach bears this burden well and delivers a great teen protagonist. While she depicts promising character variations, she needs to work on pacing. The ability to sound like a teenager without compromising narration is a true narrator's challenge. J.M.S. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Gr. 7-10. The great popularity of Princess Diaries books has opened the way for Cabot's paperback series The Mediator (published under the pseudonym Jenny Carroll) to move into hardcover under Cabot's own name. In many ways, 16-year-old Susannah Simon is a normal, sassy teenager with a keen interest in clothes, makeup, and boys, but her ability to see and occasionally trounce ghosts makes her more than a bit out of the ordinary. Teen "mediator" Paul Slater doesn't see the job in the same benevolent light that Susannah does, and Susannah finds herself attracted to him even as she's repelled by his chilly manner. A subplot involves a ghost who wants to take revenge on its brother. Making sense of the plot definitely requires having read previous books in the series, which begins with Shadowland (2000), but teens (especially fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will find it worth the effort; they'll enjoy meeting the brave, nonchalant heroine and following her romantic dilemma. Susan Dove Lempke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description

Suze is used to trouble, but this time she's in deep: Ghostly Jesse has her heart, but Paul Slater, a real flesh -- and -- blood guy, is warm for her form. And mediator Paul knows how to send Jesse to the Great Beyond. For good.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

My name is Susannah Simon, and I am a mediator — a liason between the living and the dead. If you think this gets in the way of my attempt at a normal sixteen-year-old life, you'd be right. You try going to the mall while constantly being accosted by the undead.

Not that this is a bad thing all the time. Like, for example, when I discovered my bedroom is haunted by Jesse, the ghost of a nineteenth-century hottie. While I haven't made much progress with him (only one kiss so far), I remain optimistic. Jesse's inexplicable resistance to my charms is not my only obstacle, though: there's this other guy. A live one, who has the same gift of gab with the undead I have. In the same way I'm after Jesse, this guy is after me. And he knows how to send Jesse to the Great Beyond. For good.

So I guess you could say I'm haunted. I just never thought it would be by someone who isn't dead.

Author Biography:

Meg Cabot is the author of the best-selling, critically acclaimed, immensely popular Princess Diaries novels, as well as All-American Girl, Haunted, and two Regency novels, Nicola and the Viscount and Victoria and the Rogue. Meg was born in Bloomington, Indiana, and her childhood was spent in pursuit of air conditioning, of which there was little at the time in southern Indiana. A primary source proved to be the Monroe County Public Library, where Meg whiled away many hours, reading the complete works of Jane Austen, Judy Blume, and Barbara Cartland.

Armed with a fine arts degree from Indiana University, Meg moved to New York City, intent upon pursuing a career in freelance illustration. Illustrating, however, soon got in theway of Meg's true love, writing, and so she abandoned it and got a job as the assistant manager of an undergraduate dormitory at New York University, writing on the weekends, and whenever her boss wasn't looking.