Portraits of Celina by Sue Whiting

When I first saw this title, I’m not sure what drew me to it. Maybe it was the cute red polka dot dress on the cover, or perhaps the single line of text accompanying the dress: “Make him pay, Bayley. Make him pay.” It sounded slightly ominous, especially because the book blurb marketed it as a ghost story, love story, and a story about revenge.

The story starts with a prologue, and it’s not certain whom the narrator is. Are the events happening to Celina, or to Bayley? Who are these girls anyway? As I continued to read, things started to make more sense (as they usually do). Celina has been missing (presumed dead) for forty years, and Bayley and her family have moved into Celina’s old house after Bayley’s father dies. Bayley is intrigued by a chest full of Celina’s things, and that’s where the fun starts. Slowly, she learns more about Celina and what happened to her, but not in the way you would think. She is constantly visited by Celina’s spirit, which is intent upon revenging herself upon her murderer. As Bayley is her exact twin in looks, due to them being second cousins, Celina uses Bayley to get her revenge.

Along the way, we meet an intriguing cast of characters: Amelia, Bayley’s older sister who wants nothing to do with the new environment; Seth, her younger Batman-loving brother; Oliver, the hot neighbor Bayley has the hots for; and Deb, one of Celina’s best friends. With Celina’s help, Bayley works through the mystery of Celina’s death and eventually helps her to get her revenge.

Portraits of Celina was a very easy read for me. It’s a short book, so I finished it within a few hours. The story flowed along at a good pace, and something interesting was always happening. While the plot was intriguing and the writing was good, certain elements were very easy to figure out. For example, I guessed who the murderer was the first time we were introduced to him. I also quickly deduced the reason why Bayley had a strong attraction to Oliver’s father. Overall, these things did not detract from the story, but they did lessen the mystery a bit.

I would recommend this book to people looking for an easy, but well written, read who like ghost stories. However, I would warn them not to read this alone and at night if they are easily spooked. It took me quite some time to fall asleep after I had finished reading this because I kept thinking that the spirit of a long dead person would come haunt me and make me exact revenge on somebody. To me, that is the mark of a good book. It was just scary enough to bother me, but not so much that I wanted to stop reading. I will definitely be looking for more of Whiting’s work in the future.

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