Picture the Dead -- Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown

After her beloved fiancé Will dies in the Civil War, Jennie Lovell's life takes a decided turn for the worse (besides the obvious). Her guardian aunt (and would-have-been mother-in-law) begins to make her dislike more and more apparent, and except for her cousin Quinn -- who, despite being gravely injured, survived the war -- life in Pritchett House is quickly becoming unbearable.

But then, as her feelings towards Quinn begin to warm, she starts to suspect that someone -- Will? -- is trying to contact her from Beyond The Grave. And so, in the hopes of laying his spirit to rest so she can move on, she sets out to unveil whatever secrets lay hidden. 

Picture the Dead is a beautifully packaged illustrated novel -- each chapter is preceded by a few pages from Jennie's scrapbook, and, unlike most books that include "handwritten" elements, the handwriting in this one is actually occasionally blotted out and illegible. (So often, publishers use an annoyingly regular handwriting font that I tend to find more distracting than anything else. In this book, the handwritten portions were a part of the artwork, and so I assume that they were actually written out by Lisa Brown. Which is such a nice touch.)

While I never felt completely immersed in the story or the characters -- despite my enjoyment of and appreciation for the format, I think it kept jogging me out of the story -- I loved the storyline, and was surprised again and again by plot twists. I approved of Jennie's pluck, and loved how she used her younger (and dead) brother's spy-in-training tips to unravel the mystery. And, of course, as I'm always a sucker for all things spiritualism and especially spirit photography, that part of the storyline made me squee.

I was also extremely happy to read the author's note at the end -- it gave a bunch of jumping off places for readers (including me) to nose around and do a bit more reading about some of Griffin & Brown's various historical inspirations.

Hand this to teen fans of alt. format novels (epistolary, diaries, IM, illustrated, graphic etc.) as well as those looking for something spooky and historical, romantic and mysterious.

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Book source: Review copy from the publisher.