Charles de Lint is one of my favorite authors, for his infusion of magic and fantasy into everyday modern cityscapes. Having recently read and enjoyed The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, it was an unexpected treat to discover an uncorrected bound proof of The Blue Girl in my favorite second-hand bookstore. Complete review at http://cynthiaparkhill.blogspot.com/2...

I love a book that takes an familiar trope and turns it on its ear. Forget what you know from other books about fairies; Charles de Lint's fairies aren't particularly beautiful, but they are a little bit wicked. I loved the way he mixed elements from fantasy, science fiction, even horror to create his world. The characters are realistic and believable, and the issues they deal with are real as much as they are fantastic. Bullying, oppressive parents, parents who don't care enough, image and one'...

I'm not a big YA fan, even for a Newford book. It wasn't a bad book! And I did enjoy the tiny cameos and mentions of a few of the established Newford folks.

When 17 year old Imogene’s family move to Newford, she decides to change her ways – a bit. Rather than running with a gang, she’ll make an effort at school and try to stay out of trouble. She quickly makes friends with Maxine, a girl who seems to be her exact opposite, and tries to ignore the resident school bullies. But the attention of the school’s resident ghost and a bunch of malevolent fairies (to say nothing of the reappearance of Pelly, Imogene’s imagery friend from her childhood) soon me...

Classic de Lint...well-developed characters from many walks of life with a touch of enchantment. Never "dumbed down" for the YA audience that this is actually shelved under. The story takes place in Newford, but the city's presence is only peripheral and hardly mentioned. Deals with a lot of the godawful parts of high school as well as why it may not be such a good idea to draw the attention of the fairies that inhabit it...

A surprisingly fun little fantasy story. 3.5/5.

This review was originally posted in 2008 after I had read the book for the first time:"The Blue Girl" by Charles de Lint has been one of the most satisfying snatches from the fantasy shelves for me last year.Is has it all:1. A very warm-hearted and detailed description of a forming unlikely friendship between tough punk-girl Imogene, who had a criminal gang-member-record in her hometown and a childhood spent mainly on her own because of her drug-consuming carefree hippy-parents, and anxious, sm...

Imogene ran with a bad crowd in her last school, but when she, her mother, and her brother move to Newford, she meets a girl, Maxine, who gets picked on and they become best friends. Imogene decides she’ll try to be straight and narrow. At the same time, she is no stranger to standing up for herself against the school bullies – in this case the head cheerleader and her football-playing boyfriend. When Adrian sees this from a distance, he falls for Imogene. But, Adrian is a ghost… with friends wh...

I read (and adored) this book years and years ago, and just now realised it's by Charles de Lint, set in the very same world I fell in love with a few weeks ago thanks to his beautiful Dreams Underfoot. The adoration hasn't faded with time, or with re-reading (as so often happens with childhood favourites) and this book is making it's way to my "all-time favourites" list. Now - here comes the love letter (my apologies, I can't help but wax a little lyrical with books like this!) The characters a...

Not as good as I hoped. Imogene moves to the fairy haunted town of Newford. She befriends the quiet, bullied Maxine and soon sees the ghost Adrian stalking her. Adrian hangs out with some fairies, who as a lark try and get Imogene to notice them. But they have darker motives as well, and soon some of the less friendly denizens of fairyland take notice of Imogene too.A lot of things about the book I didn't like. The first problem is that Imogene is far too competent for a teenage girl. She never

If you're new to de Lint's books, and are looking for something with substance, I urge you not to read this one. Try the other Newford books first, or Someplace to be Flying.

What a great story about friendship and loyalty wrapped in a setting of urban fantasy!! This novel was intriguing from the first chapter. Imogene is a complex character who deals with life on her own terms. I loved seeing her help her friend Maxine bloom as a person! This is my first foray into the writing of Charles de Lint - and I will be reading more of his work!

This is a re-re-read for me; One of the authors magical tales of a reality that is not ,i.quite,/i. the same reality as the rest of us live in.Imogene's mother has just moved them to Newford where she has a new school to contend with, never an easy thing at 17. But Imogene has had a very different sort of 17 years, growing up in a hippy commune, running with a 'tough gang' at her last school... This time she just wants to blend in as much as her individual, feisty nature allows, make a friend or...

I remember reading this book when I was in Jr. High or High School. I don't remember if I loved it or not but it made me want to read it again. While it was a good story filled with ghosts and fairy's and imaginary friends, I still felt as though the story was missing something. It didn't fall flat per se, but there wasn't a lot of meat to it. Everyone in the story took to believing Imogene's story about the ghost and the fairies. I didn't mind her best friend Maxine believing too, but EVERYONE

I found this one on my bookshelf. I know I bought this and read it shortly after it came out, but eleven years later, I couldn’t remember how I felt about it. Reading it now brought back some memories of reading it for the first time; I believe it was one of my first forays into the young adult urban fantasy genre. I believe it is an excellent introductory novel for young adults looking to transition from realistic fiction type novels into fantasy. Imogene is the rebellious character starting ov...

One of my favorite books I read in middle school. I remember being legitimately creeped out by her imaginary friend, Pelly. This is one I'd like to revisit to see how it aged.

This book has so much going on and yet i was so dettached to it all.Most of the things happen without mention like all of a sudden we find out about this Thomas guy being Imogene's boyfriend with absolutely no previous mention.This book written is in alternative first person narrations but they all sound so similar and unreal.Not once was I even worried about the main characters. If you want to read great urban fantasy check out Black Fall

From the very first pages I felt this is familiar territory. I'm a big fan of the highschool comedies of the 1980's, and The Blue Girl starts with a couple of outsiders making common front against loneliness and bullying. Imogen is the new kid in school - a wild one, with hippie parents and a troubled history, and Maxine is the studious, timid high achiever with old fashioned clothes picked by her mother. Each has something to learn from the other. If you're wondering where the book title is com...

When people ask me what my favourite book is my default answer is The Blue Girl. One of my first experiences with urban fantasy I found The Blue Girl to be the perfect combination of weird and wonderful. I'm sure that in the coming years I will re-read this book to see if it holds up to my previous experience and when that happens I'll be sure to give it a proper review. In the meantime, I highly recommend you check out Charles de Lint. His Newford series is really interesting and worth it for a...

It was a good book... although there was some... inappropriate parts. So if you're someone who doesn't like a spirit liking a human romantically [spectrophilia], then I advise you to proceed with caution.