ON THE DAY I DIED by Candace Fleming

On the Day I Died
Candace Fleming

Grade: B-
Release Date: 07/10/12


Synopsis from goodreads.com:
The phenomenally versatile, award-winning author, Candace Fleming, gives teen and older tween readers ten ghost stories sure to send chills up their spines. Set in White Cemetery, an actual graveyard outside Chicago, each story takes place during a different time period from the 1860's to the present, and ends with the narrator's death. Some teens die heroically, others ironically, but all due to supernatural causes. Readers will meet walking corpses and witness demonic posession, all against the backdrop of Chicago's rich history—the Great Depression, the World's Fair, Al Capone and his fellow gangsters.


My thoughts on the book:
This book was a little too young for my tastes. That being said, the writing is phenomenal, and I really enjoyed the Chicago history incorporated in On the Day I Died. The main reason this book called to me on NetGalley is because it featured Chicago as a backdrop. I really enjoyed the idea of the short stories being linked together. It reminded me of those "scary" books I used to read when I was in junior high. That's one of the reasons I didn't give this book a higher rating, though. I felt like it was supposed to be scary, but it wasn't. 


The story begins with a present-day ghost story, and the stories that follow are all being told from various victims of death. They all died in different ways and in different time periods. I also liked how Fleming included a bit about the Urban Legends she pulled from in the end. This collection of stories is rich and well-rounded, to say the least. My favorite story was the depression era story. I love that time period in Chicago. 

Overall, I'd recommend this book to children ages 11-14. It reads for a younger audience than the YA that I'm used to. It may scare the kids a bit, but who doesn't love a good scare at that age? The stories are definitely suspenseful, and I think that if I wasn't as old as I am, then they would have scared me a bit. Nothing too horrifying, just some good clean, scary fun. If you have a kid who enjoys the tween scary stories, like I did when I was growing up, then they are sure to love this book!

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