The Girl with the Ghost Machine

DeStefano, Lauren. The Girl with the Ghost Machine. 2017. 214p. ISBN 978-1-68119-444-8. Available at FIC DES on the library shelves.

The sudden death of her mother left Emmaline and her father, Julien, bereft and sad. Emmaline misses her mother dearly, but has adapted to life without her. Her father, however, has not. Over the last two years, Julien has been spending most of his time in the basement, working on a machine designed to bring their mother back. Not her physical self, but her ghost self, since Julien thinks that souls are like water. They evaporate away from the body but never really go away, and it should be possible to condense the soul back into a manifested ghost. His work on the machine has left Emmaline to fend for herself.

With her friends, twins Guliver and Oliver, Emmaline continues to live her life, going to school, working on projects, and stretching every dollar. Gully is the logical and pragmatic one, and he likes to count steps between destinations. Oliver is the dreamer, and he lets Emmaline’s mind soar. She loves them both as friends.

One fateful night, Emmaline, who has been sick of the Ghost Machine that took her father away from her, sneaks in the basement and attempts to destroy the Ghost Machine, only to instead make it work. Her mother appears and spends some time with Emmaline, making her feel better. However, this comes at the cost of a memory, the same memory that brought her mother back in the first place. Emmaline is shocked and distraught at the loss of this memory. When she mentions this to the twins, Oliver decides to run his own experiment and brings back their dog for a few minutes. Gully, who was against this course of action, is upset that Oliver would lose such a memory, but Oliver counteracts he has countless memories of their dog.

Her father discovers that Emmaline made the Ghost Machine function, and he is thrilled. Such a device could help a lot of people, but it could also cause great mischief. Emmaline wants the machine destroyed, but she can’t convince her father to do so. When tragedy strikes again, Emmaline is faced with a stark choice. Should she use the machine once more?

A very well written bittersweet story about family, friends, grief, and the power of memory to bring people together, middle school students will enjoy this story and will be able to relate to Emmaline’s desire to have both her mother and her father back with her.