Book Review: "The Great Ghost Rescue" by Eva Ibbotson

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

When a whole family of ghosts lose their home, they accidentally meet a young boy named Rick. Rick decides its his job to help them and takes them all the way to London. He plans to talk to Parliament and demand help. But things don't necessarily go as planned.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Rick is a school boy with high ideals. He agrees to help the ghosts without much thought.

Humphrey is the son of Mabel and Hamish, a ghost couple. Unlike his other family members he is not quite good at being a ghost. He is fully aware of it and wishes he could change. He develops into a brave character by the end of the book.

Aunt Hortensia is Humphrye's aunt who goes around carrying her own head. She is quite rude and often says mean things about her nephew.

Beatrice is a classmate of Rick's. She is rather smart and ends up helping Rick on more than one occasion.

Peter is a classmate of Rick's that is very homesick. He doesn't know anyone at school very well.

Mr. Wilks is Nick's Representative in parliament.

Lord Bullhaven is our bad guy. He is two dimensional and oddly inappropriate.

PACING

Ibbotson's stories are not fast paced which doesn't' usually spoil anything. She takes her time setting up the scenes and introducing the character as well as the problem. She focuses more on silliness than action. But it suits her perfectly.

MORE THAN HE PLANNED

Rick travels to London, more and more ghosts tag along. We get odd and amusing stories from them and even end up with some vampire bats.

RICK'S ARC

Rick does have a slight arc. He is not perfect and although he is quite naive, he does come to worry about his plans. Especially when he meets the vampire bats. He does eventually learn to respect them and not fear them. He even gives one of them an important gift.

But I am afraid he is a rather shallow character. He seems to care more about saving the world then the tears of his own roommate. That kind of put me off.

MR.WILKS NEEDS CONVINCING

After meeting his representative in parliament, Rick is blown off. But he is told if he can prove that ghosts are real, he can see the PM. A hilarious scene follows where the ghosts crash an upscale cocktail party and terrify everyone.

WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR?

Beatrice is really the only friend of Ricks. So it makes sense that she doesn't only push the story forward by giving Rick advice, she also comes back into the story. This time she has secret knowledge which allows Rick to get the ghosts fast.

Peter on the other hand, isn't a friend at all. And he is kind of shoved into the story halfway through. Rick remembers he can do martial arts and thinks he could be useful. I guess Rick was supposed to be developing sympathy for him. In the beginning of the book, he is too busy thinking about saving the planet to notice him.

STRUCTURE

The book is set up into two main sections, the first being where Rick goes to get help from the PM and what occurs. The second part is after some trouble occurs and help is sought out. As well as the journey back to the new home for the ghosts.

MISS THISTLEWAITHE-SPOILERS

When Rick needs help to get to the ghosts, he turns to a teacher. Turns our she is part of a group of secret witches. It is silly of course, but what follows is kind of underwhelming. Turns out that have some sort of dolls. They use one on a wealthy young man who then suddenly shows up, saying he wants to fly to exactly where they want to go. He asks if they would like to join him.

I expected something with slight more thought put into it. Like maybe a love potion that made him fall for one of the witches and then he accepted their request to use his jet. Or something. I guess this had to happen fast. But I wish something more original had occurred. Like him acting like a brain dead zombie who follows all orders. Or something. Just something with imagination.

OUR VILLAIN IS EVIL

The worst part of the story is the bad guy. Obviously, Eva Ibbotson creates funny stories that are not to be taken too seriously. But she doesn't usually write about serious issues. But the character of Lord Bullhaven is awkward and confusing.

His motivation is: he doesn't' like anyone different from him. Ibbotson actually says that. We get a long list of races and religions and people as well as those who are not wealthy (he is wealthy, but we don't learn anything about his religion). There is no reason or rational given as an excuse for these reasons. He is just evil.

That kind of two dimensional character would be obnoxious to me already, but the fact that the serious issues of racism and prejudice are shoehorned into the story make it worse.

Simply put it would have been easy to make him hate ghosts because he had once been terribly scared by one. That would have made sense and at least given him motivation.

CLIMAX

Rick, Beatrice and Peter arrive back at the ghosts new home and manage to save them. A party follows.

CONCLUSION

The idea of ghost stories is familiar to Ibbotson. And there is her usual use of humor. But Rick is a rather shallow hero and the story lacks imagination in most parts. The final nail in the coffin is Lord Bullhaven, who hates everyone, just because. Not only is he an unimaginative villain, he is completely uncalled for in what is supposed to be a silly book full of fun and whimsy. I give “The Great Ghost Rescue” one a half stars.