Ghost World

Black Hole
$18.95
Combining the best elements of sci-fi, horror, and those cheesy movies designed to scare teens in the '70s, Black Hole is wonderfully funny and subversive while also being genuinely thrilling and disturbing. In 1970s Seattle, a group of teens battles against sexual desires that threaten to leave them monstrously deformed. A new sexually transmitted disease has come alive, and there's no cure. The strange effects of the disease--different for everyone who catches it--mirror the pain and isolation of high school. Black Hole is tragicomic in the best sense of the word: It takes itself seriously, and so do its readers. How could you not? When one chance encounter with the wrong person could lead to a lifetime of horror, you can't help but be just a little bit nervous.

-- John Hogan

Ghost Worlds: A Guide to Poltergeists, Portals, Ecto-Mist, & Spirit Behavior
$14.95
i bought this book with high expectations on learning more about paranormal investigations, unfortunately i trusted in the high ratings for this book. This book to me was a waste of time. i continued to read it with high hopes of learning techniques or new information. what i came across was an author that was more focused on talking about her gifts and experiences than actually teaching like the descriptions talk about. i was very very disappointed that this book didn't live up to it's expectations.

Ghost World: The Special Edition
$39.99
Fantagraphics has become the master at re-packaging comics and books into endless variations, sort of the RCA Records/Elvis equivalent. It's made me not want to buy the original comics, and not even buy the graphic novels anymore because eventually the special edition/hardcover/extra pages/director's cut/expanded edition will come out.

Welcome to the Dollhouse
$24.96
The underdog and star of the movie is Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo). Dawn is an awkward, unattractive 7th grader who is the school's underdog. Everyone picks on her for no reason - other than she does not fit in with the popular crowd. She has no friends her age.

She is from a middle class Jewish family that lives in New Jersey. Her family is stable, with a dominant mother, kind but meek father, an aspiring older brother who wants to get into a good college as well as play in a rock band, and a doll of small sister, Missy (Daria Kalinina).

We follow Dawn through the minefield of pre-teen junior high and family problems. She does not fit in with her family, with school or with boys. Her first crush is with Mark's new bandmember, Steve (Eric Mabius). He sees her only as Mark's little sister. Another boy her age is attracted to her but he has problems of his own.

Between the two off-beat romances and her humiliations and anger issues her younger sister Missy is kidnapped. Missy is clearly the family's "baby doll" and the search brings forth Dawn's guilt in not relaying a message to missy before she left for ballet class.

Missy is found and life goes on. Dawn is strong and accepting of her place in life for the time being. She looks forward to being in High School.