“You…You told them I exist…right?”
Genre: Autobiography/Graphic Novel
In this graphic novel, the reader follows Cat as she struggles to come to terms with her family moving to a location that will benefit her sister, who is suffering from cystic fibrosis. Cat’s main issue with the move is that she will no longer be around her friends, but as the story progresses, she grows more displeased with her new home because of the strong ghost presence, which greatly excites her younger sister.
The girls run into ghosts for the first time after Carlos offers to introduce them, but it ends badly when the ghosts are overeager in the presence of visitors and unintentionally cause Maya to collapse. This causes a rift between Cat and the Carlos, increasing her fear of the ghosts that she only wanted to avoid. She is determined to protect her sister at all costs. However, she changes her mind when her sick sister is unable to go trick-or-treating and visit the haunted mission. She pushes past her fear of the ghosts so that she can experience something that her sister desperately wants to do for herself.
Throughout the early stages of the story, Cat held herself back because she wanted to look out for her younger sister, but this also made her feel bitter because she never did anything for herself. When her sister urged her to face the ghosts, Maya told Cat to do it for herself so that she wouldn’t live in constant fear. Maya also hints that she won’t be alive much longer so Cat would have to get over her fear if she wanted to spend time with her when she becomes a ghost, too. The story ends in a heartwarming moment between the girls and the ghosts as Cat learns to overlook her assumptions and fear to truly accept the genuine warmth of the spirits looking out for them.
At first glance, this graphic novel seems like it will be all about ghosts and the supernatural, but there is a deeper topic addressed which revolves around Maya’s illness. She mentions her coming death several times in the story, which is a hard reality for Cat to accept as the older sister. It also seems to imply that Cat’s guilt about doing anything for herself stems from her fear of losing her sister. She is shown to be afraid of the ghosts initially, but it isn’t until they seemingly attack her sister that she writes them off entirely. This story has many important messages in it for young teen readers, but the most important is represented in the relationship between the sisters as they struggle to accept the reality of Maya’s ailment.
The Grand Adventure 