I Heart You, You Haunt Me - Review

Girl meets boy.
Girl loses boy.
Girl gets boy back...
...sort of.
Ava can't see him or touch him, unless she's dreaming. She can't hear hisvoice, except for the faint whispers in her mind. Most would think she'scrazy, but she knows he's here.

Jackson. The boy Ava thought she'd spend the rest of her life with. He's back from the dead, as proof that love truly knows no bounds.Taken from GoodReads.

Ok, so I Heart You, You Haunt Me follows the story of Ava and and Jackson, a young couple very much in love when a freak accident on a dare ends Jackson's life. Absolutely devastated, Ava discovers she can still see him in her dreams, in mirrors, and she can feel his touch. He's gone, but not gone. Most people think she's crazy, but Ava knows it's Jackson and he's come back to her. The only problem is that she's not sure if it's possible to stay with him this way, or if it's fair to either of them.

First off, I love this book. The cover is simple, haunting, and subtle. What you should know when you read this book is that it's a Verse Novel...

Verse Novel: A type of narrative poetry in which a full length novel is written in a poetic form, rather than ordinary prose.

This makes it a quick and simple read, but it is done so well. I haven't really read any verse novels out of school before, and Lisa Schroeder does so with exceptional skill. I think it must be very difficult to write a full and descriptive novel in this form, but she masters the skill and the story is excellent.

It's a story of love, loss, grief, and the ability to cope and move on. If you enjoy reading deep and meaningful novels, you'll really enjoy this. It's more of a love story than a ghost story, but the ghost element is great for those who enjoy the sci-fi element. That said, it's definitely not the key element of the story. I give this a strong 4.5 out 5, simply because I love real novels, and though this verse novel was really, really good, I think it would have been stunning as a normal novel, as well.