Gilda Joyce: The Ladies Of The Lake (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
Tried to listen to the 2nd book in the series and I still am not impressed. Might get a giggle out of a juvenile reader, but anyone more sophisticated will probably not enjoy this series. I like my heroines to be sassy, but the black humor doesn't amuse me. The humor, mystery and paranormal parts all fail to deliver.I wish the author had researched the Catholic girls school background just a little. The prayers weren't right and there were none of the inside jokes that could've amused Catholic school alumni. All it would've taken was an afternoon with an alumni telling you stories or proofreading the story and giving input.Figured the mystery out during the flashback in the first chapter, so the rest of the book was more irritating than enlightening. The flow of the language in the book is descriptive and entertaining, but I couldn't enjoy any of the characters.Gilda is too arrogant and glory-seeking to be endearing. None of the other characters had many positive traits, except for Gilda's best friend, Wendy, who is barely in the book.I think Gilda Joyce stories would be more interesting if they had more paranormal activity, instead of hinting or imagining things. I don't believe that Gilda is psychic and it is just another thing she is outspoken, but delusional about.(view spoiler)[Dolores Lambert, RIP, is avenged by Gilda when she solves the mystery of Dolores' death courtesy of the Ladies of the Lake.I liked that Gilda grew to tolerate Brad, her mother's live-in boyfriend, but unfortunately, it was just in time for him to be kicked to the curb. It alluded to how irritating someone could be when you live with them, as opposed to just dating them. It seemed like Gilda's mother was willing to put up with Brad when he had a good job and made lots of money, but when he was unemployed she was less than enchanted. Was it supposed to be ironic that Gilda was attending a Catholic school and Brad moves in with their family? Did they really keep the car that Brad bought for Gilda's brother when they broke up? So even if you overlook the co-habitation, it sounds like Gilda's mother was a gold digger to me. Not a nice lesson for middle schoolers!You can bully someone, haze them and taunt them into a situation dangerous enough that they died and you get suspended from school for a week?!!! I couldn't figure out how the book was going to end, but this was horrible. And this is why I am abandoning this series!My favorite parts of the book involved the psychic maintenance worker. (hide spoiler)]
Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator is a scrappy, irreverent, and sassy 13-year-old who isn't afraid to use her brains and self-proclaimed talent as a psychic to solve mysteries that just seem to fall into her lap. Gilda still misses her dad who recently died and she connects with him by writing letters to him frequently. But, Gilda is most annoyed with her mom who has taken up with a new boyfriend, Brad Squib. Brad does Gilda and her mom a 'favor' by getting Gilda into an elite and exclusive all girls school called Our Lady of Sorrows. She doesn't want to leave her best friend, Wendy Choy behind at her old school. Gilda is silently furious until she finds out that a mysterious secret surrounds the school. Three years ago, a girl drowned under curious circumstances. Gilda is determined to get to the bottom of it. Her psychic abilities come to her via dreams which provide clues to preponderous predicaments. Gilda eventually does solve the mystery surrounding the dead girl, Delores Lambert, by using her insightful instincts and keeping a cool head. But, just when she thinks she will be hailed as a hero for solving the mystery, the real fun begins.Gilda is a no-nonsense type of girl, who doesn't back away from set-backs or threats. She is a thinker, a doer and a go-getter. You will enjoy her brassiness and determination. I am sure when you pick up the copy of Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake by Jennifer Allison, you will have a hard time putting it down because a mystery is in the making!
What do You think about Gilda Joyce: The Ladies Of The Lake (2006)?
I ❤ this book, I do have a favourite part (flipping though book trying 2 find the right page) the page is 337 it near the end of the book I don't really know y it's my fav part anyway, I own the book here's my fav part:"Keith disappeared behind one of the crumbling walls and be-gan to rake dried leaves from the interior of the ruins. As he worked, he reflected that it was odd to see three freshmen girls sitting on the bridge after school on a half day. There was some-thing strange about the one with long, tangled blond hair; he didn't recognize her, but she looked eerily familiar. He rubbed his eyes and turned back to his work, grateful that his broken rake still worked pretty well bound together with a pink silk scarf he had found at the edge of the lake three year ago."That's straight out of the book, if you have read the book then you will have a good idea y I this part is my fav part out of the whole (sp) book
—Tila Kalypso
I loved this one! The second in the Gilda Joyce series, it's even better than the first. The heroine, a 13-year-old psychic investigator, may bear some resemblance to Harriet the Spy, but she is truly unique, and I've never run across another quite like her. This complex, spooky, suspenseful mystery, set in a rather odd, exclusive Catholic girls' school that's apparently haunted by a freshman who drowned in the school's lake three years earlier, is totally riveting. And it's hilarious, especially in the letters Gilda writes to her late father on his old Underwood typewriter, the entries in her reporter's notebook, and the pieces she writes for the school newspaper, all of which are interspersed throughout the third-person narrative. A terrific, fun read, highly recommended.
—Sheila Beaumont
The lesson I learned from this story is ........ Keep your voice down around the dead. Just kidding! I think that it is very important not to lie. We see this message many times throughout the whole book. I also realized that it is very interesting how even in ghost stories which are completely make believe, you can almays find the message of the story and apply it to your daily life. In the plot of this story,there are three girls who make up a club. They made a terrible mistake three years before and never told anyone about it. Even when the headmistress directly approaches them one of them still lies and ends up getting into a lot of trouble for doing so. And before this when they don't admit to anyone their horrible mistake, they end up just feeling depressed for keeping such a secret. These are few examples that show us that nothing good can come from lying. It is very important to tell the truth. About 25 years ago, there was a fake article in the Sports Illustrated magazine for april fool's day. It was about a baseball player named Sidd Finch. Everyone was really excited about this new man who would soon be one of the most amazing players.... until they found out that he didn't exist. Many angry fans cancelled their subscriptions to the magazine and the Sports Illustrated magazine lost a lot of money when so many people cancelled their subscriptions. This is definitely called not telling the truth. It is a perfect example that no good comes from fibbing. The three girls in the story are the perfect characters to bring out the message in this story. These perfect, cheerful, innocent high school girls would never have been suspected or looked at as the kind of girls that could manage to pull something off so mean. They were popular, sweet and got good grades. But deep down, they were keeping many lies just as a secret between themselves. If these girls were expert criminals then they would not have been able make the message so clear because no oone would even be looking for a message with criminals because no typical person could relate to them but most people can relate to these regular teens. It is much easier to see the message when we can relate to the characters and these girls were a perfect example.
—Elisheva
