I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
And if I should die before I awake,
I pray the popular attend my wake.
ghostgirl note is a book series written by Tonya Hurley. The first book in the series, simply titled ghostgirl, was published in 2008. It was followed by two sequels, ghostgirl: Homecoming and ghostgirl: Lovesick.
The series is about an ignored girl named Charlotte Usher who's starting her final year at Hawthorne High. Trying to get noticed by her peers, especially by her crush Damen Dylan, Charlotte starts this year off on the other foot. While trying to be Damen's lab partner in Physics class, Charlotte accidentally chokes on a gummy bear and dies. After dying, she is required to attend an alternative high school for dead kids called Dead Ed. She later finds out that no one is able to see her except her idol's sister, Scarlet. While using the Possession incantation she learned, Charlotte begins to use Scarlet as a way to communicate with Damen, but Damen thinks he's talking to Scarlet and falls in love with her.
These books provide examples of:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Scarlet annoys Petula to no end, but that's just their conflicting personalities acting up.
- Celestial Bureaucracy: right after Charlotte dies, she has to fill in a form.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Most of the ghosts suffered ridiculous deaths.
- Charlotte choked on a gummy bear.
- CoCo drowned in her own vomit.
- Maddy tried to kill her friend with a botox overdose but accidentally killed herself.
- Piccolo Pam swallowed her flute.
- Toxic Shock Sally died because she forgot to change her tampon.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Prue is initially very hostile to Charlotte, but ends up warming up to her.
- Eating Lunch Alone: Charlotte feels uncomfortable during her first lunch with the Dead Ed kids because she never knows where to sit. She is very happy when Pam invites her to sit with her.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Scarlet agrees to switch bodies with Charlotte using a special incantation — the results are that Scarlet becomes a ghost and Charlotte takes possession of Scarlet's body.Charlotte: You and me, our soul makes three...me and you, our soul makes two...we are me inside of YOU.
- Gender-Blender Name: Charlotte's full name is Charles Usher.
- Go into the Light: subverted, Charlotte sees a very bright light that is actually coming from the classroom.
- Goth: Scarlet and Prue (to some extent). Though, in ghostgirl: Lovesick, Scarlet goes through a makeover and is barely Goth anymore.
- He Had a Name: After Charlotte dies, nobody knows. Everybody just goes about their daily lives. That is, until she became visible at the Fall Ball. Then, everyone knows her.
- Hidden Depths: Damen plays the guitar and likes Death Cab 4 Cutie and indie horror films.
- I See Dead People: Scarlet is, for some reason, able to see the Dead Ed students. It's never explained why.
- Jacob Marley Apparel: Everybody keeps their corpse's appearance in the afterlife, and it's the source of all the nicknames, such as "Piccolo" Pam and "Metal" Mike.
- Matter of Life and Death: The slogan of the series is "Sometimes, High School really is a matter of life and death."
- Mundane Afterlife: Apart from their newly gained powers, the Afterlife is basically the same as our world.
- Of Course I'm Not a Virgin: Petula actually insults Scarlet for being a virgin. It's also hinted that Damen and Petula have had sex before; his car was reportedly parked out in front of her house "all night" sometimes.
- Redemption Equals Death: Subverted in ghostgirl: Homecoming. When Petula hears that the little girl she's been talking to all day is going to die, she offers to take her place. Charlotte is moved by the gesture, but tells her that it's not her time to die.
- Soul Power: After dying, Charlotte gains the power to possess people, phase through objects, shapeshift, teleport, and move things telekinetically.
- Shout-Out:
- In ghostgirl, the Wendys suggest dumping a bucket of blood on Scarlet at the Fall Ball. Petula tells them it's already been done.
- Hawthorne High is a Shout-Out to Nathaniel Hawthorne.
- Undignified Death: Charlotte dies by choking on a gummy bear.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Charlotte died at age 17, yet she talks like a prophet.
- With Friends Like These...: The two Wendys don't care one bit about Petula being hospitalized and even make fun of her, joking that she might be pregnant and taking photos. They're not better in Lovesick, ditching her for Darcy.
