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Johnny and the Dead

Johnny and the Dead

FantasyYoung Adult
Pages
199
Published
2004
Language
English

Synopsis

The local council plans to sell the old cemetery to a developer. Johnny Maxwell discovers that the dead buried there are still around — the recently deceased kind who have not quite figured out what comes next — and that they have opinions about the redevelopment. With the help of the local ghosts, Johnny mounts an unlikely public campaign to save the graveyard. The second Johnny Maxwell novel, which turns out to be quietly about the relationship between the living and their responsibilities to those who came before them.

Prose complexity
2/10

Vibe

FunnyThought-ProvokingHeartwarmingSatirical
Reluctant HeroComing of AgeSurvivalMentor Figure

Genres

Fantasy Young Adult Humor Paranormal

Authors

A
Albert Vitó i Godina

Albert Vitó i Godina writes across genres, from novels like Johnny and the Dead, Showboat, and La madre to non-fiction. He also offers insights into literary theory with Cómo leer literatura and human relationships in Anatomía del amor.

T
Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was an English author best known for the Discworld series, a sequence of forty-one comic fantasy novels set on a flat world carried through space on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant turtle. Across four decades, the Discworld grew from a parody of sword-and-sorcery fantasy into one of the most sustained works of social satire in English literature, examining politics, religion, science, gender, race, capitalism, and the nature of stories themselves. Pra...

Characters

Johnny MaxwellProtagonist

The boy who can see the dead, and who is the only one in his town who thinks the cemetery matters.

Mr VicentiSupporting

One of the dead — a former resident of the cemetery who is considerably more interested in the modern world than most of the other ghosts.

All characters in Johnny and the Dead

Frequently asked questions

  • When was Johnny and the Dead published?

    First published in 1993 by Doubleday. It is the second novel in the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy.

  • Is this a ghost story?

    Sort of — but the ghosts are more bemused than frightening. The novel treats the dead as the previous inhabitants of a community, with opinions about what happens to it, rather than as horror elements.

  • Was Johnny and the Dead adapted?

    Yes — it was adapted as a BBC television film in 1995, starring Andrew Falvey as Johnny Maxwell.

  • Do I need to read Only You Can Save Mankind first?

    Not strictly required — Johnny and the Dead works as a standalone novel. The character of Johnny Maxwell is introduced independently in each book, though reading in order is rewarding.

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