Ghost

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

I love books by Jason Reynolds. I've reviewed some other ones, but I didn't know he wrote a series about track. This is book one. Do I need to say anything else? No? Okay cool.

An amazon summary, "Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves.

Running. That’s all Ghost (real name Castle Cranshaw) has ever known. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons—it all started with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has been the one causing problems—and running away from them—until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who sees something in Ghost: crazy natural talent. If Ghost can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. Can Ghost harness his raw talent for speed, or will his past finally catch up to him?" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Castle is avoiding his home. He wanders around the neighborhood, visiting familiar landmarks and people, and dreams of becoming a basketball player. He doesn't want to be home without his mother. Castle and his mom watch romantic movies at night, where Castle falls asleep on a pile of blankets in the living room, and his mom sleeps on the couch. They haven't slept in their own bedrooms since Castle's father tried to shoot them one night. They ran down to Mr. Charles' store as fast as they could, and they hid in the storeroom until his father was taken away.

So, while Castle is avoiding home, he happens to witness the practice of a track team called the Defenders. Castle sees one of the kids acting like he's fastest, but Castle knows he can run faster. He crashes their practice and proves himself to be fast. The Coach drafts him for the team on some stipulations, like not having altercations at school, and Castle, aka self nicknamed Ghost, is part of the Defenders.

That's enough summary.

I love how real this book felt. The struggles that Castle prevents which he was experiencing, and the new ones he goes through with all the ups and downs, it felt like Castle was telling me his story. I loved reading about his character growth, learning about the other characters, and also, kind of experiencing his culture. The story had a lot of hard subject matter, but it was made easier to read due to how Castle talked about it.

I'm not going to make this a recommended book though, because I think it could have been a bit longer to capture more of Castle's story. I know there are more books in the series, and we'd probably find out more through those books, but I would have liked to have more of just Castle's story.

This was a shorter book, so I'm not going to talk too much about it since I don't want to ruin anything. The characters were well done, I loved Coach, I loved Patina, and I could see how easy it would be read more books in this series. I'll probably save them for a rainy day though.

Happy reading!