Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouseby Chris Riddell

Ada Goth is the only child of Lord Goth. The two live together in the enormous Ghastly-Gorm Hall. Lord Goth believes that children should be heard and not seen, so Ada has to wear large clumpy boots so that he can always hear her coming. This makes it hard for her to make friends and, if she's honest, she's rather lonely.Then one day William and Emily Cabbage come to stay at the house, and together with a ghostly mouse called Ishmael they and Ada begin to unravel a dastardly plot that Maltravers, the mysterious indoor gamekeeper, is hatching.Ada and her friends must work together to foil Maltravers - before it's too late! (goodreads.com)

I feel like I should take out a giant ad in all of the papers and magazines of the world because I finished a book. In one sitting. Mind you, I was sitting on a train for 2.5 hours, but still!This book showed up at my house as a surprise and a mystery. I knew I hadn't bought or ordered any books, especially this one. Thanks to the internet I found out that it was from the amazing Jenny at Wondrous Reads and she thought it was a book that would be my cup of tea. Boy was she right! This random act of kindness was very needed in my life right now and words cannot express how much I appreciate it. :)Since I haven't been able to read things and nothing has been even remotely interesting to me, I wasn't sure how this would go, but I needed to occupy my mind on that train ride and I really wanted to disconnect from the internet as much as possible this past weekend. It was nice. I brought two books with me this one, and the ARC of Cress I had. I had hoped - and I was right! - that Goth Girl would be the kind of book to help me forget my troubles and just enjoy a book. Just the physical book was enough to start that escape. Photos cannot do this book justice. It is GORGEOUS. The page edges are sparkly, purple. The cover is embossed and shiny. There are illustrations on every single page (in black and white, but they are adorable!) and at the end of the book... there is a SURPRISE MINI BOOK! Which just made me so crazy excited my husband laughed at me. heh

There is even a ribbon bookmark attached to the book! This is one fantastically packaged novel and it was the most entertaining and whimsical story I have read in a long time.

Goth Girl is a wonderful mix of silly-but-not-TOO-silly, mystery, and whimsy. Ada Goth is a sweet girl who makes interesting friends and helps both magical creatures and her father out in this story. Ada has a bitter-sweet story, her father doesn't like to look at her because she reminds him too much of her mother, who died when Ada was very young. I sort of found that part of the story to be heart breaking. Poor little Ada can only see her father once a week and he won't even look at her. She has to wear super clompy boots around the house at all times so her father, Lord Goth, can hear her coming and avoid her. So sad!

But Ada is charming and sweet and curious and she doesn't let this get her down too much. She explores the house and surrounding land (and YAY! There is a MAP in this book! With all the silly-named locations noted! I almost squealed out loud on the train when I saw it!)

This book held my attention for pretty much the entire train ride and I finished it at the stop before mine. I decided half-way through that this is a book I will lend my sister to read to my 7-year old niece. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did!

Thanks so much, Jenny for the gift of this book! It was everything I needed and more right now!