Slow Dance in Purgatory by Amy Harmon

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Title: Slow Dance in Purgatory
Author: Amy Harmon
Series: Purgatory #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: April 2nd 2012
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 232
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's Science Fiction vs Fantasy Bingo 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

The hallways are empty, the school day long over, the din of lockers and youthful laughter have dissolved into silence. It's as if the very walls are waiting. And then through the intercom a song starts to crackle, the soundtrack of a forgotten life. And the band begins to sing - "Lovely Maggie falls for Johnny, a boy no one else can see. Heartthrob Johnny, 50s bad boy, trapped for eternity. Lonely boy and lonely girl, unsolved mystery. Maggie and Johnny, only high school sweethearts, because Johnny can't ever leave. Do wop, Do wop.."

In 1958, a rumble goes down outside the brand new highschool in Honeyville, Texas. Chaos ensues, a life is lost, and Johnny Kinross disappears. But in 2010, someone finds him. Orphaned at the age of ten, 17-year-old Maggie O'Bannon finally finds a permanent home with her elderly aunt in a small Texas town. Working part-time as a school janitor, she becomes enmeshed in a fifty-year-old tragedy where nothing is as it seems and the boy of her dreams might vanish when the bell rings.

This volatile and mismatched romance is doomed from its start, as Maggie struggles to hold on to yet another person she is destined to lose. Secret love and hushed affection are threatened by outside forces, resulting in a desperate race to keep a secret no one would understand. Deeply romantic, funny and tender, Slow Dance in Purgatory captures the heartache of a love story where a happy ending might be decades too late.

My Review:

4.5 stars — OK, first thing you should know about me is that I’m a scared crier…meaning tears fall out of my eyes uncontrollably (b/c it’s not normal crying) when I get scared.  And this book is NOT scary people.  I mean, there are suspenseful bits, sure.  But apparently just the concept of ghosts scares the crap out of me.  I started this book at 1am while my husband is away on business, and you better believe I freaked myself out.  I don’t know why I said first thing, that was more just an aside because it amused me.

This book really did suck me in despite scaring me…and I think I was scared because the atmosphere surrounding the school and Johnny was described so well.  The way the story was laid out was really interesting as well — there were 2 or 3 glimpses into the past near the beginning to help us understand what happened, but mostly it was set in the present.  And we also got quite a few POVs.  Now, that’s not always my favourite, but in this case the bits we saw from other people felt right for the plot.  However, there were a few times with just Maggie and Johnny where I felt like the POV changed without a clear break (like sometimes maybe even in a paragraph) and that’s a pet peeve of mine.  It’s not incorrect at all, I believe this is a case of 3rd person omniscient…but I guess I’m just not as big a fan of that, and it’s not what I’m used to reading so it feels wrong to me even when it isn’t.

I loved Maggie, even as she frustrated me.  She was so vulnerable and desperate for love that would stay, my heart broke for how hard she worked to not be a bother to Aunt Irene.  I totally understood her connection with Johnny, and truly felt their chemistry…I didn’t doubt the love she developed, but I was just as concerned about her lack of awareness of the untenable situation that was their relationship.  At times it felt like she did become obsessed.  I understood why, I just wanted more for her, you know?  I appreciated the little detail about her having dyslexia, and how becoming a foster kid kind of let that fall through the cracks so that no one noticed or helped.

Johnny totally got to me too…honestly, I wouldn’t have minded being in his head even more.  He was such an interesting character because he was this popular kid when he was alive, but then he had 50+ years of loneliness to shape him into someone…more I guess.  I felt for him and what that kind of isolation must have done to him.  I understood his connection with Maggie, and I appreciated that he tried to do the right thing, but found that hard to maintain.

I adored Gus and Aunt Irene…they were a wonderful pseudo-family for Maggie, and I loved that Maggie automatically had someone who believed her in Gus.  Shad was a mixed bag for me…he was written so perfectly, this lonely, awkward, 14 year old boy just trying to survive high school.  I would get annoyed with his crush on Maggie, but it was so perfectly realistic for a kid his age.  He was hilarious and annoying and my heart ached for what he was going through.

I’m super interested to see what happens next.  I wouldn’t call that a cliffhanger ending, but I was also glad I could just buy the next book and get answers right away.  There were so many little tidbits of plot that felt like hints, and I can’t wait to see how everything unfolds.