Book Review: Girlgoyle

Title: Girlgoyle

Author: Evan Ramspott

Date: 2015

Publisher: Storyteller

Quote: "Tffany didn't believe in ghosts...But they were always watching her."

You might, as I did, think that a "Girlgoyle" would be part of a "Better Heroes" collection because she overcame her obsession with her really strange-looking face and did something heroic to help someone else. You would be disappointed, as I was. This full-length novel is coherent and well written in its way but it's not what you expected, and may not be anything you'll enjoy. 

In the reality of this fictive world, gargoyles are alive. They are something humans may become in the afterlife, though no rule is given for determining who becomes a gargoyle. They live in a bare stone tower on a bare stone mountain, their skins are stone-colored, their emotions become a bit stony too, but they have big batlike wings, quite a nuisance for them t learn to drag about, on which they can fly. Their purpose in life is to subdue rebellious ghosts. They live in barracks, not unlike boot camp, and practice until they're good enough at flight and fight to go out and beat ghosts into submission.

Tiffany was a near-normal little girl, not all that strange-looking, just a bit like an anime character. (For some strange reason, although it's not a graphic novel, the book is generously illustrated with anime-style drawings.) Body hardly big enough to support a head that's not oversized, maybe taking a break from the hard work of growing up, maybe not growing up because it's not healthy. Tiffany was subject to anxieties and nightmares, and was never very strong, until one night she felt herself being crushed to death and woke up a pretty-faced, scrawny gargoyle with wings. After a little training in the use of her wings and the magical light energy ghosts and gargoyles wield, she finds the ghost who pushed her into the afterlife and leads her friends, even her teachers, out to destroy him. 

There is internal logic to this book. I totally did not get into it, but you might. The author has skills, and there's been a series of sequels that apparently appealed to people who are less turned off by the gargoyle world premises than I am.