Rating: 7 out 10Summary: Rose Marshall died in 1952 in Buckley Township, Michigan, run off the road by a man named Bobby Cross—a man who had sold his soul to live forever, and intended to use her death to pay the price of his immortality. Trouble was, he didn’t ask Rose what she thought of the idea. It’s been more than sixty years since that night, and she’s still sixteen, and she’s still running. They have names for her all over the country: the Girl in the Diner. The Phantom Prom Date. The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Mostly she just goes by “Rose,” a hitchhiking ghost girl with her thumb out and her eyes fixed on the horizon, trying to outrace a man who never sleeps, never stops, and never gives up on the idea of claiming what’s his. She’s the angel of the overpass, she’s the darling of the truck stops, and she’s going to figure out a way to win her freedom. After all, it’s not like it can kill her. You can’t kill what’s already dead.
Overall: This was first published serialized, online series of shorts, so there’s a lot of repetition. But if you can get past that, Rose’s story is an excellent one. Of course, Seanan McGuire is one of my favorite authors, so I might be a little biased, but that’s not the point. Sparrow Hill Road is also set in McGuire’s InCryptid world. A series I have yet to start, but you don’t need to in order to enjoy this bind up.
Thoughts: Rose Marshall is a badass, hitchhiking ghost from the 1950s. She’s awesome. She’s also a psychopomp, meaning she guides other ghosts to the other side so they don’t get stuck on the ghost roads like she did. The way I understand it, some ghosts are hers to guide and some aren’t, but if she chooses, she can guide anyone on their way out. Rose just feels a stronger pull to those she’s meant to guide, like with her family members.
I have three favorites out of all the shorts compiled in this book. The one with the crazy professor lady who tries to exorcise Rose because she believed Rose had killed her boyfriend.
The next was with the ghost hunting college students searching for the Phantom Prom Date aka Rose. This was a great one because Rose literally helps them set up traps meant for her.
And the last one, when she goes to guide her boyfriend, now an old man, to the other side, but he has a different idea and remolds his soul into that of a car so he can stay with her. That was weird but cute.
The lore in this was great. You have hundreds of different types of road ghosts and routewitches, people who can hear the stories of the roads and do some other stuff…I’m sure its elaborated on in the InCryptid series, but from just reading this, it’s kind of hard to explain unless you read it.
The stories also jump around a little, so you kind of have to pay attention to the dates given if you want to put events into perspective. Its also why I can't name the chapters/sections of my three favorites. I could skim through a few to figure it out, but I'm content to just leave it at my horrible descriptions above.
The characters are all great, even the ones only mentioned in one story. A few make appearances in others, like the road ghost of crazy professor lady's boyfriend. He has a name, I just can't remember it.
This is kind of a sucky review, but oh well. I read this a couple of months ago, so I’m a little vague on specifics.
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