Break My Heart 1,000 Times (review)

Seeing ghosts is an everyday occurrence ever since the cataclysmic Event thinned the veil between the physical and spirit world; voiceless images of the dead, whether killed by the Event or something else, appear throughout fifteen-year-old Veronica’s hometown. Veronica and her mother, for instance, have breakfast each day with the silent, unresponsive ghost of Veronica’s dad. The ghost of a teen girl, Mary Greer, appears every morning near the house of Veronica’s English teacher, August Bittner, because (as some have suspected) he’s the one who killed her many years ago. She’s not the only one: in an effort to please the ghost of his wife, who insists that their dead daughter, Eva, will come back to life in the body of a girl who dies on the anniversary of Eva’s death, August has actually killed several girls, and now he’s zeroing in on Veronica. A crime thriller, a ghost story, and a dollop of existential philosophy are a surprisingly effective combination here, giving readers a taut, suspenseful story arc laced with thoughtful musings on the nature of life, death, and memory. The third-person narration shifts among Veronica, Veronica’s friend (and would-be boyfriend) Kirk, and August, occasionally interjecting the first-person voice of a ghost hoping to warn Veronica of August’s threat. Stalwart, practical Veronica holds readers at an arm’s length, but the sorrow she feels over her father—and his returning image—is palpable, lending resonance to her discussions with Kirk about death, grief, and the process of moving on. August’s sadness echoes her sentiments and makes him oddly sympathetic, even as he is unceasingly vicious in his attempts to bring Eva to life. Ultimately, this is a tale of the necessity of mourning, and readers who normally find mere titillation in ghost stories will instead discover plenty to think about here.