Is it a blessing or a curse to be able to see and talk to ghosts? For Lara Lington, it is both. In the fictional novel Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, Lara Lington is the niece of a man who built up his own coffee franchise from scratch. Even though this is great for her Uncle Bill, stress puts a lot of pressure on Lara to become successful in her own company: L&N Executive Recruitment. Lara was frustrated after being forced to go to her 105-year-old aunt’s funeral. She never expected to see a 20-year-old ghost version of her aunt who she never even knew. At first, Lara believed it was a figment of her imagination. She had just been dumped and her new company was going terribly. Trying to ignore the “hallucination,” however, did not work out well. Sadie, convinced that she was not dead, began screaming at Lara, telling her to find her beloved necklace. Lara goes on a search to find Sadie’s necklace while Sadie proves to be a handy ghost. Sadie helps Lara with her job and even her love life. The problem is, Lara’s success is mainly due to Sadie.

Lara used Sadie to bring up her business, sort out her love life, and defend herself. Sadie convinces Lara’s ex-boyfriend that he is still in love with Lara and even eavesdrops on potential recruits for Lara’s headhunting company. Lara essentially employs Sadie, except without payment or gratitude. Sadie did everything, yet Lara was reluctant to help Sadie enjoy her last moments on Earth as a ghost. Lara selfishly has Sadie do all the hard work for her. Although it was a good read, the message Twenties Girl sends is negative. People don’t have a ghost to help them, but the book still encourages the audience to follow the easy route over honest, hard work.

The book itself was enjoyable and I would recommend it for some light reading. However, Lara had a ghost do all the hard work for her, something I do not agree with. Instead of having Sadie do everything, Lara should’ve tried to accomplish things on her own. The novel was 435 pages, which I breezed through in about four days. In my eyes, Sadie is the true hero of the novel, not Lara Lington.