Part haunting, part urban legend, part feminist coming of age to break the bindings put on us by others.

I'm still a HUGE Seanan McGuire fan, but this title was just 'meh' for me. There's nothing really wrong with it. It just didn't blow my skirt up.

Seanan McGuire has a wonderfully fresh take on ghosts. Her stories breath new life into the dead and keeps them running for ages.

I loved it but honestly I don't think I've ever read anything by Seanan I didn't like so I'm a bit biased

A worthy, WORTHY successor to the first book in this series, I elected to read "The Girl in the Green Silk Gown" on Halloween night, and it was the PERFECT combination of peak nostalgia and McGuire's irascibly fresh voice. Rife with road-and-diner Americana, this is a book that sings with self-awareness. It knows what it is and what it wants to be, and it knows how to get you there. Although characters from the 'InCryptid' series appear throughout, the 'Ghost Roads' series is its own unique liminal space and I will happily haunt it to its conclusion.

Seanan McGuire, that talented and productive author, treats us to another installment in Ghost Roads series with <em>The Girl in the Green Silk Gown</em>.

Rose Marshall is dead. She's a ghost - a hitch-hiking ghost to be more precise - and she wanders the highways, catching rides with the living in order to help them as they pass from one realm to the next. She's been a ghost for sixty-some years and over time she's developed a reputation. She's sometimes known as the Ghost in the Green Silk Gown and sometimes as the Phantom Prom Date, but she's just Rose.

Rose was killed by Bobby Cross, a once-famous actor who made a bargain and now drives through eternity, killing innocents in order to keep his demon car fueled. He killed Rose, but she accidentally escaped being consumed by him and now Bobby has a grudge against Rose and he's bent on finishing her off.

There are rules in the Ghost Realms by which to live (or un-live) by and even those who are governed by the rules don't always seem to understand them. Rose's escape from Bobby was one such rule and now, when Bobby manages to make Rose mortal again, so is another. The dead aren't supposed to be alive. Rose can die again, but to do so might completely change what type of ghost she is to become, if a ghost at all. Rose needs help to return to the dead and it's possible that only the living can make this happen. But who do you turn to when all your relatives have died?

I greatly enjoyed this journey into the ghost realms. McGuire does such a fine job of creating a world with unique rules that feel so right and appropriate. She also manages to deliver these rules smoothly and in the course of story-telling rather than just giving us a big info-dump session.

Additionally, McGuire gives us compelling characters. Rose Marshall comes across as so real and alive, which is why we get caught up in her story and care about what happens to her. Never mind that she's a ghost ... that she's<em> fictional.</em> We care about her.

One sentence surprised me, coming from Seanan McGuire. At one point our narrator (Rose Marshall) says to the reader "That speaks well of her intelligence, since I'm literally talking out of my ass."

Really? "Literally" talking out of her ass? I read this and imagine a high, squeaking voice, like the air being let out of a balloon between the fingers. Had our narrator character said this out loud, I might have forgiven her, since people do say this, even though it is so incorrect. But to have written this as part of the narrator-to-reader it just really bugged me. Sorry Ms. McGuire - you're better than this!

I loved the ending of this book. Too often I get to the end of a book I've enjoyed only to be let down, but McGuire gives us just the perfect conclusion.

But one sentence won't really ruin a read and I highly recommend this book.

Looking for a good book? <em>The Girl in the Green Silk Gown</em> continues the ghost adventures of Rose Marshal, by Seanan McGuire, and is a recommended read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Word of Warning: Be sure to read Sparrow Hill Road first!

Rose Marshall and Gary, her boyfriend/ghost car, are enjoying time at Emma's diner when Bobby Cross used a routewitch to summon her. Bobby and Rose have a history of him trying to kill her while she wiggles free. This time he manages to damage the protection the Apple, the Queen of the Routewitches had tattooed on her back, trapping her in the Twilight. The rest of the novel is her quest to get back to normal. Rose ends up traveling with Laura Moorhead, folklore professor who has tried to kill her in the past to visit Persephone and Hades and get her protection restored. In all, an interesting journey that stresses Rose and her friends/allies almost to the breaking point. It was a good story, but in some ways I enjoyed the shorter stories of Sparrow Hill Road better.

http://www.ismellsheep.com/search?q=The+Girl+in+the+Green+Silk+Gown+Seanan+McGuire
It was 1952 sixteen-year-old Rose Marshall set out alone for the prom and was killed by actor Bobby Cross who had made a bargain at the crossroads to stay eternally young. Rose became an urban legend, known to most as the Girl in the Green Silk Gown or the Phantom Prom Date. Sixty years later, she's still sweet 16 and hitchhiking her way across America, helping travelers get to their destination unharmed or holding their hand to guide them into the twilight. Her boyfriend Gary is now dead and became a car so he could spend his afterlife with Rose. But Bobby had used a routewitch to kill, ruining the protection from the Persephone tattoo Rose wore to keep Bobby from harming her. The queen of the routewitches sends Rose to a farm where she must survive Halloween night in mortal form again, for her protection to return. Unfortunately, Bobby has thought of everything and when Halloween is over, she's still alive. If there's one thing Rose is more afraid of than Bobby Cross, it's living. Now she must find a way to return to her dead hitchhiker self before Bobby finds her and kills her again.

We return to the world of Sparrow Hill Road that touched on a lot of the rules and mythologies of Rose Marshall's world. In the second book (a novel this time), The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, we get to see more about how all of this fit together. I have really enjoyed how she took the hitchhiking girl in the party dress tales and layered the mythology to her and even using her the mythologies of the underworld of the dead. This time around, the novel is about wanting to go home and wanting to be with the family you've made, despite the fact that these things might not be conventional, or recognizable to anyone but yourself.

Seanan McGuire has allowed the reader to take a road trip with Rose, not to go camping in the mountains or to relax at the beach or visit places with kitschy, oddball things or where famous people might reside, but instead, the road leads you to visit where ghosts, gods, witches and spooky legends inhabit. The Girl in the Green Silk Gown is another great read by Seanan McGuire that hooks you right at the first page.

To be published at speculativechic.com on October 2, 2018
***

When we last saw Rose Marshall, she was fresh off of a victory against Bobby Cross, her eternal nemesis and the man who led to her death in the first place. She was in a good place, as much as a ghost can be. Best of all, she had been somewhat reunited with the love of her young life, Gary ("somewhat" because Gary happens to be a car...I told you to read Sparrow Hill Road). Things were looking up!

Until they weren't.

I promised no spoilers, and I'm going to stick with that. What I can tell you is this: poor Rose, who hasn't yet been able to rest quietly in her grave, is forcibly removed from her home on the Ghost Roads and forced into situations that she thought that she'd never have to face. She finds herself truly alone and vulnerable for the first time in sixty years, and it's heartbreaking.

What do you do when you're far from home and have literally zero allies that you can turn to for assistance? You make it up as you go along. Fortunately, Rose has decades of experience as a hitchhiking ghost to aid her in this outrageous situation. Not only is she pretty good at reading people, but she's practical and can think on her feet. I shudder to think of what might have happened to her had she not been so resourceful in the face of a genuine crisis. I kind of envy her; I'm not sure that I would have been that calculating and calm in the face of such a situation.

We learn a little more of what Rose's life might have been like if she'd been allowed to live longer than only sixteen years. It turns out that she very likely would have had a fascinating life. We get to watch, with genuine sympathy, as Rose deals with being essentially powerless and lost. McGuire's characters are always well-developed and complicated. They are some of the most human characters walking around the fictional world these days. Rose is no different. She's not perfect, by any means. She's moody, stressed out, and Really Sick Of This Shit. Watching her do her best to hold things together is a more than a little bit empowering. If Rose can survive this ordeal, surely I can defeat the tedium of my own daily life, right?

In Conclusion: This is a worthy followup to Sparrow Hill Road. I enjoyed the first book more, but that's only because "enjoyment" is something that's hard to say about this book. Rose deals with such a terrible thing here that it's hard to say that this was something that I enjoyed reading. It was, however, absolutely engaging and well-written. I appreciate this book in spite of (or maybe because of) the discomfort that it brought me. Spoilers forbid me from going into detail, but if you've read the book, speak up! I'd love to chat.

***This is a combined review of The Girl in the Green Silk Gown and Sparrow Hill Road***

Although I had a copy of Sparrow Hill Road on my Kindle to read, I mistakenly started with Seanan McGuire’s second book in her Ghost Roads series, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. It actually worked out well that I did. Sparrow Hill Road is a compilation of stories and scenarios introducing readers the character of Rose Marshall, our hitchhiking ghost. It certainly would have whetted my appetite for more Rose, but I think the cohesive novel pulled me in more so than the individual stories might have. I did not mind having to go back and do a little catching up, filling in some of the blanks—like how in the world Gary became a car?! And I wanted to know more about how she became tied to Persephone, questions which are answered in Sparrow Hill Road.

Talk about intricate world building! The layers of the afterlife created by the author and tying it in with existing mythology was genius. And McGuire did it in such a way as to make it very tangible. Rose’s death was no accident, but she did not quite serve the purpose of her killer had planned for her. As a result, he has been hunting her for the sixty years since she lost her life at age sixteen. Rose has made a life for herself, thumbing it on the highways of America. She has earned a name for herself, although not all the legends about her are true. Some, of course, are. The roads themselves have a life of their own, built on history and memory. And the weigh stations, or phantom diners, found along the way aren’t far behind that, given the power they hold.

Sparrow Hill Road offers a glimpse at how Rose became who she is now—how she earned her name as the Phantom Prom Date and various other nicknames. The reader gets to see her in her early years as a ghost, her attempts to save others from a similar fate, and her run ins with those who would wish her harm, including one of her own relatives. I enjoyed this collection quite a bit as it allowed me to hold onto Rose Marshall for a little bit longer after finishing The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. I enjoyed all of the stories. Rose can be rough around the edges at times, but that is what makes her Rose. She did not have an easy life when alive and it is no different in death. She died at the age of sixteen and will forever be stuck in the body of a sixteen year old. She has watched those she loved die, sometimes seeing them down the road.

What a ride The Girl in the Silk Gown was! Pun intended. Rose has long been on the run from Bobby Cross, the man behind her untimely death. She knows she must find a way to stop him, but she isn’t quite there yet. A tattoo seal on her back is the only thing that is preventing Bobby from getting his hands on her—but he’s found a way to break it, and Rose is now fighting for her very existence. Bobby even scares me—I really don’t like him. He is evil to the core. Talk about the ultimate road trip. From corn fields to the roads of America, and even to Greece where we meet up with the gods. Finding allies among enemies and making new friends, Rose is determined to get out from under Bobby’s clutches. There was no sitting back in my chair or lying comfortably on the bed as I read. No, I was sitting up, tense as can be or standing and pacing as I read, dying to know what would happen next. Where I do think reading Sparrow Hill Road first would have come in handy, is having a better grip on who some of the returning characters were. Not yet knowing though, did not prevent me from enjoying or following the story. Rose may be sixteen in appearance, but she has had more than a life time of experience. She resourceful and a risk taker, which serves her well.

Some of my favorite characters were the routewitches, especially the Queen. I do hope we get to see more of her in future books. Their tie to the roads and the road ghosts in an interesting one which McGuire has fit so naturally into the world she has created. The Ocean Lady, an example of a road that is a character, is both mysterious and powerful. I can see why she is feared and revered. I also really like Emma, who is one of Rose’s friends. She has her reasons for preferring to live among the dead rather than the living, but will do what she can to help Rose.

I could not help but think of the television show Supernatural. This series has a similar feel, although different. I am very much looking forward to reading more by Seanan MacGuire, both in this series and in her other series. I hear they are pretty awesome too.

I've become a huge fan of Seanan McGuire's books over the last couple of years and I was really excited when I found out we'd be getting to spend more time with Rose in The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Rose herself is such an interesting character but what I really love about her books is the way Seanan has woven so many different legends together to create the richly detailed world of the Ghost Roads and all the different types of ghosts that live there.

This book picks up Rose's story after the end of Sparrow Hill Road and I wouldn't recommend reading the stories out of order so make sure you start with that one. Rose has been reunited with Gary but considering he's now a ghost car they'll never have what anyone would consider a normal relationship, they're making it work though and Gary is just happy to be with her in any way he can. We may have thought that she'd gotten Bobby Cross off her back but previous events have only made him all the more determined to end Rose's afterlife. Bobby has been out of the picture but only because he had plans to make and he has put his time to good use coming up with a very elaborate plot that Rose is going to really struggle to survive.

I have to say this story went in a totally different direction to any I could have imagined and I think that's probably one of the things I enjoy most about Seanan's books, she always manages to surprise me! Rose has been dead for over 60 years but she has never had more to lose and her afterlife is only part of it.

*ARC received from NetGalley in return for an honest review*

Oh gosh, this book is a nonstop ride that I enjoyed every second of! While the first one was on the slower paced side this sequel starts out fast and just keeps going. Rose is a character I have come to love and that love has bloomed into something larger. One of my biggest fears is loving a main character in the first book then just to lose that love the in second. Instead, McGuire has added to the magic of this world and characters. I just can't explain how much this book was a joy to read. There were moments I felt that could have been cut shorter, but those are small nitpicky things that really can be overlooked by just how amazing every other moment of the story is.

While book one in the Ghost Roads series was good, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown surpasses it. It continues the story of Rose who has been 16 now for 60 some odd years. She's the phantom prom date, the girl in the green silk gown. She travels the highways and byways in the lands of the living and the dead.

But Bobby Cross, the one responsible for her death, is out to get her now more than ever. He struck a bargain with the Crossroads for eternal life and youth, but he needs to feed souls to his car. And he's aching to feed Rose to it. Bobby finds a way to toy with Rose, bringing her back to life. She is more vulnerable as a living human being than she was as a ghost. And she is whinier in a funny way.

Rose needs help and fast. She needs to be able to traverse the roads of the living and the dead in order to get back to the death she's come to know.

This book is smoother reading than the first book, less jumping around, more coherent. It's also pretty suspenseful. Many times it seems just when things can't get worse, they do. It works well keeping your attention. And it makes it something of a page-turner.

On the cover, there are symbols for both Rose and Persephone whose blessing she has on her back as a tattoo; now she must seek more. The mythology in the book is complex, well thought out, and easy to follow. It's a nice blend of urban legend, Greek mythology, and the unique lore of the world Rose lives in.

I found I really disliked Bobby Cross. I don't feel any sympathy for him. That might change if he is ever remorseful, but that's for book 3 to see. He makes an excellent villain.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5. Book two in the Ghost Road series definitely surpasses book one even though both are good. The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire was published July 17th, 2018 from DAW.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This in no way affects my review. All opinions herein are my own and freely given.

This is the 2nd book in the Ghost Roads series about Rose Marshall (the Phantom Prom Date). I enjoyed it a lot, although it got a bit slow at points. I loved venturing back into this ghostly world in between worlds and learning more about Rose Marshall.

In a way this is kind of the first Rose Marshall book; the first published book “Sparrow Hill Road” was actually a collection of stories about Rose. This book is the first novel length story about Rose. It involves Rose trying to flee and stay safe from the man that killed her, Bobby Cross.

I love this world and the characters. There are a ton of amazing and creative ideas in here and I loved that as well. Although, I will say the idea of the Ghost Roads and how they work can get a bit complicated and ambiguous. At times I had to reread parts to understand exactly what was going on.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and love that it ties in a little bit with the Incryptid series. This is a very creative world and series with intriguing characters. I plan on continuing the series.

Seanan McGuire is brilliant, and this book lives up to every expectation I had. When I read the first book I wasn't sure it would become a series, and I'm still not sure it will be but I'm really glad there was a follow-up to the first one.

Seanan McGuire continues to create fantastic worlds and characters. I thoroughly enjoyed The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, which is a more focused story than Sparrow Hill Road. There's plenty of creep here, as you'd expect from a story about a ghost, but there's plenty of heart, too. All in all, well worth your time.

The sequel to Sparrow Hill Road is one long story instead of a series of vignettes like the previous one. Rose is ghost thanks to a man that made a deal at the crossroads and killed Rose in order to fuel his eternal life. But Rose got away and for more than 60 years has been living in the twilight, hitchhiking across America and helping drivers in the way only she can. Bobby hates that Rose is the one that got away and is obsessed with getting her any way he can and he sets up a scheme to finally capture her and end her to continually pay his way for an eternal life.
This book covers more about routewitches and other types of ghosts that Rose comes into contact. This is set in the InCryptid universe you don’t have to know anything about it since there is only a passing mention to people from those books. A great story and I can’t want to see more of this setting.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

The Girl in the Green Silk Gown is the sequel to Sparrow Hill Road. Sparrow Hill Road tells us the story of Rose Marshall, the original Phantom Prom Date, murdered in 1952 by Bobby Cross and traveling the ghost roads meandering between daylight, twilight, and midnight and helping those she can along the way while trying to avoid Bobby Cross.

In The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, Rose continues to try to evade Bobby and somehow find a way to end him. However, through a complicated and nefarious scheme, Rose becomes mortal. And the book is a roller coaster as she tries to find a way back to being dead but not gone. This book will make you think a little differently about everyday biological functions as Rose has to suddenly contend with those things once again.

Even with Rose alive, Seanan McGuire continues to spin the tales of this new road mythology along the Twilight where highways live. But it gets even better as old, known mythologies are woven in as a means to return Rose to her spirited form, dead but not gone. She is forced to rely on the one living person she knows, who doesn't much like her. But the bonds formed are real and I actually cried as a result.

The Girl in the Green Silk Gown is one story, as opposed to the several short stories pulled together to create the pick-up novel of Sparrow Hill Road. The difference is palpable and makes this sequel brilliant. Do yourself a favor and read it! It's such a unique way to look at roads and ghosts in America. And I believe it all now!

Rose Marshall is still running the Ghost Roads. She’s the Girl in the Green Silk Gown, the Phantom Prom Date, the Woman in the Diner, and the Ghost of Sparrow Hill Road. She’s a myth and a mystery and a cautionary tale. Bobby Cross ran her off the road in 1952 and is still after the one who got away. She survived her run in with him in the first book in the series, Sparrow Hill Road, but that doesn’t mean he’s given up on taking her soul.

In the second book in the Ghost Roads series, Seanan McGuire picks up pretty close to where the second book left off. Rose and Gary are trying to figure out how to be together… albeit, as much as a 16 yr old girl who has been a ghost for 60 years and a man who figured out how to put his soul into a car in order to spend eternity with his dead girlfriend can be together. It’s pretty much Rose driving him around and Gary talking to her through slammed car doors, horns, and songs on the radio. But Rose doesn’t care, she’s happy to have her boyfriend back and to spend time with him at the Last Dance Diner.

Then she finds herself summoned in a ritual by a routewitch on behalf of Bobby Cross and suddenly all the protections granted her in the first book are smeared away. Now she finds herself on the run, trying to figure out how to regain her blessing from Persephone and avoid coming into contact with Bobby. It seems this time he’s figured out the perfect snare and Rose discovers what her worst nightmare really is, returning to the land of the living after 60 years.

Seanan McGuire has become an auto buy author for me. I simply adore her voice and imagination. The Ghost Roads series is part ghost story, part urban fantasy, 100% awesome. After the sometimes rambling, meandering narration of the first book, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown gets down to business pretty quickly. Rose is sucked from the twilight and into the land of the living at the very beginning and figures out pretty quickly that something is terribly wrong. From there the entirety of the story is Rose trying to regain her protections, avoid Bobby, and return to her life on the ghost roads. Readers finally get to meet Gary as a man, and see Rose team up with her mortal enemy from the first book, Laura, along with her allies Emma, the bean sidhe owner of the Last Dance, and Apple, Queen of the Routewitches. Rose will journey across the United States, along the Ocean Lady and through the gate into the Underworld. It’s a long trip, and there were a few times I wanted the pacing to speed up a bit, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Seanan McGuire has created such an interesting world. I hope to visit with Rose, Gary, and the gang again in the near future. Final Grade-B

Favorite Quote:

This is where I belong. The road. The endless road.

Very readable! I liked this more than I thought I would. Really expanded on the world introduced in the first book which were more vignettes. I look forward to reading further books in this series.