A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner

Title:  A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend 

Author:  Emily Horner 
Genre:  Young Adult 
Publisher:  Penguin Group (Penguin Books)
Publication Date:  28th June 2010 (Australia)
ISBN:  978-0-14-320431-2 
Stand alone or series:  Stand Alone
Pages: 264
Book Received from:  Penguin Group 
First Lines:  Dear Julia, I'm writing this because I still turn around when I hear your name, and I just turned around. 
Synopsis
Cass and her drama-crazy best friend, Julia, were planning a road trip to California.  When Julia is killed in a car accident, Cass decides to follow the original plan anyway.  Even if she has a bicycle instead of a driver's licence, and even if Julia's ashes are coming in Tupperware.

This is a story about friendship.  About love.  About travelling a thousand miles just to find yourself.  And it's a story about the kookiest high school musical one quiet suburb has ever seen.

My Thoughts
I've had this on my TBR list for quite some time and when I got the chance to get a hold of it I was pretty happy.  I wasn't sure really what to expect of this book though, I loved the cover.

I was kind of thrown at the beginning with the characters.  I couldn't really tell any of Cass's friends apart and I found I had to flick back once or twice to remember who was who.  After about page 48, it got easier and the story seemed to flow better for me.  The story is told from Cass's point of view flicking back and forth between 'Now' and 'Then'.  I like the way that Emily has done this because we get to learn more about what is going on as the story progresses instead of being bombarded with so much back story.  It works out well.

Cass is a likable character and determined to reach her destination and fulfil that one plan that her and Julia talked about.  Her journey is more a learning curve for Cass where she reminices over her friend.  Ollie, Amy, Heather, Lissa and Jon are a great cast of characters and really make the story worthwhile. (Once you work out who's who)

But the thing I loved the most out of this novel was "The Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad" play that Julia had written.  Creative and fun, I would have loved to see this play in real life!!

Overall, A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend was a great story of self discovery, friendship and love, and an absolutely sweet Ninja play! 

Some may find the pace slow at times, but while this is not a perfect novel it was still a quite enjoyable read!