Noteworthy Passages: Ghost Ride

Ghost Ride by Marina Cohen
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Pub. Date: October 30th, 2009
Pages: 184
Age Level: 12+

Synopsis via GoodReads
Fourteen-year-old Sam McLean is less than thrilled with the prospect of moving to a collection of old mansions on the northern fringe of a small town called Ringwood. A nobody at his old school, Sam is desperate to be accepted by the cool kids and latches on to Cody Barns, aka Maniac. Cody's claim to fame is performing wild stunts - the crazier the better - and posting them on his blog.

When Sam reluctantly joins Cody and his sidekick, Javon, on their midnight ghost riding, a practice in which the driver and passenger climb onto the hood of their moving car and dance, something goes terribly wrong. Cody convinces Sam to flee the scene, leaving Javon for dead. But soon, mysterious messages appear on Cody's blog and anonymous notes are slid into Sam's locker. As Sam struggles with his conscience, a haunting question remains: Who else knows the truth?

Noteworthy Passages

Narrator; pg. 76
Sam gasped for air. His lungs felt as if they were going to explode. His heart pounded against his ribs. A searing pain forced his hand to his side, but he couldn't stop. It was after him. Chasing him. He didn't dare glance back, but he knew that it was there. He could hear the crunch of leaves close behind. He could feel icy breath against his neck.
It was almost on top of him.

Narrator; pg. 161
When Sam reached the old willow, he stopped. He stood for a moment, studying the graceful crown of branches that swept the ground. The enormous trunk was grey and cut deep with fissures. For the first time he noticed the tree was twisted--three separate trunks winding around one another to form a single massive trunk. There was something majestic about this tree, he thought, majestic and at the same time eerie. Wind and drizzle flew through the air, and Sam thought he heard an eerie melody whispering through the half bare branches.

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Well those are it folks. I thought these were two good example of Cohen's quality of writing in Ghost Ride. The first showing how well she portrays the hauntingness of this story. The second, I thought, was a good example of the poetic-like aspect of her writing. I hope you enjoyed them and will leave your thoughts in the comments. You can read my review of Ghost Ride HERE.









PLEASE NOTE: This is a feature hosted here at my blog in which I present you with selected passages or quotes that I deem Noteworthy from a book I've just reviewed. My hopes are of course, that these passages will make you want to pick the book up and read it. This feature was started and created by me in January in hopes of making my blog more unique. That being said, I would like to kindly request that you do not use this feature as it was intended to be for my blog only and is not a meme. If you see some one else using it, please know it is without my permission. Thank you.