Ever since the Event, ghosts have appeared all over town. People have gotten used to seeing them go about their daily business and then disappear. Veronica agrees to join Kirk, her boyfriend, on a ghost hunt to see if they can determine ghost patterns. Daily, they go around town filming ghosts from those reenacting a typical daily scenario like mowing a lawn with an invisible lawnmower, to those reenacting their own deaths.

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This book chronicles the lives of high schoolers that share habitation in their town with ghosts. Ghosts appear after "The Event", an event that claimed millions of lives, changing the world forever. The book features Veronica, a young lady whose birthday falls on Leap Day. Little does she know that she has gained the interest of a serial killer, who teaches History at her high school. The teacher's obsession with Veronica stems from the loss of his daughter and wife. As Veronica and her new boyfriend, Kirk work to unravel the secret of the ghosts' presence, they discover new ghosts appearing and the teacher's other victims and his obsession with Veronica.
Veronica's own house is haunted by her father's ghost as well as a new ghost, Brian. Can the young couple discover the secrets in time to prevent Veronica's death? You will have to read to find out. Very sppoky and worth the read. My favorite quotes of the book follows..."But then I realizied everything we see and feel--a certain song in an elevator, a flower pressed in the pages of a n old photo album, a penny on the sidewalk---has that power. The power to make us feel like everything is too temporary." by the librarian.
Veronica's mother-on getting psychiatry help- "I don't want to forget at all. I would rather see him every morning, like I do now. I'd rather he break my heart 1000 times, than go through a day where I don't see him or think about him." For anyone who has experienced this kind of loss, the words resonate. ( )

Obviously somebody is seeing way too much of the Silence.

Based on an ARC of the book.

I was so excited to obtain an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of Daniel Waters’ newest book Break My Heart 1,000 Times in a giveaway. I was not familiar with his previous work, but the description for this young adult paranormal/suspense thriller was so provocative I was desperate to check it out. A cataclysmic Event that has made ghosts an everyday occurrence? A teacher who would kill to have his daughter back? A phantom teenage boy showing up in a teenage girl’s bathroom? It all seemed wonderfully creepy and I couldn’t wait to dive into this world. Once I did, I found a chilling read I am happy to have in any form.

When Kirk Lane is given a project by his English teacher to investigate and record some of the ghosts that appear in town, he hopes it will provide an opportunity to get to know Veronica Calder better and give him the inside track to her heart. Veronica, a girl who lives in the moment as much as possible, has always wondered about the ghosts that have become a part of everyday life and with a new one suddenly appearing in her bathroom her curiosity is piqued even further. But as Kirk and Veronica start to document the regular ghostly events around town, they stumble upon signs that a serial killer has been active in their town for years – and that Veronica may be his next victim.

Break My Heart 1,000 Times is a tautly paced thriller that grabbed my imagination from the very first paragraph. Told from multiple points of view the story takes a unique look at ghosts and handles them in a wonderfully natural manner. Most of the ghosts appear to be recordings caught in loops that play out daily, but some are a bit more conscious of their surroundings. One of these is Brian, a teenage boy who appears unexpectedly in Veronica’s bathroom. Brian is the only character to use the first-person narrative, which allowed me to quickly relate to him and his struggles to make his presence known. I was intrigued by the ways that different characters reacted to the presence of the ghosts, which ranged from complete trauma to casual acceptance. I had to question how I would react in such a situation and if I could go about my daily life normally if these bits of the past were everywhere.

Veronica and Kirk are an interesting couple. Veronica is bold, strong and lovely while Kirk is a quieter, more intellectual individual. Veronica struggles a bit with commitment issues, while Kirk is confident enough to jump right in and give a relationship his all. A love triangle tentatively rears its head between Veronica, Kirk and ghost Brian, but it never fully gets off the ground due to circumstance – which is perfectly fine since there is enough chemistry between Veronica and Kirk to satisfy. None of the characters has a problem speaking their minds, and each has a very specific “voice” when the point of view shifts to them. Daniel Waters subtly tweaks the tone of the narrative as each character takes center stage, and writes his female characters just as realistically as the males.

There is no mystery regarding the serial killer, since it is quickly revealed in Chapter 3 what history teacher August Bittner has been doing for several years. Instead, this is more of a suspense thriller as August picks out Veronica as his next victim and sets his plans in motion to bring his beloved Eva back into the world. As Kirk, Veronica and Brian become aware of August’s plans, the tension mounts and the pace quickens leading to a heart-pounding finale. The dichotomy of August’s cool, collected public façade versus his psychotic, private one adds to the menace, while his conversations with his wife provide plenty of creepiness to the proceedings.

Daniel Waters has created a fascinating, and chilling, premise that manages to leave a lot of questions open: Why is Brian different from the other ghosts? Why do the ghosts act differently around Veronica? Where did they go? What about those final lines of the book? I would love to visit this world again to get answers to these questions, and hope a sequel is somewhere on the horizon. There are so many ghostly tales left to explore it would be a shame to stop here.

With a cast of well-defined characters, a haunting premise, chills, and a touch of romance, Daniel Waters’ Break My Heart 1,000 Times is a young adult paranormal thriller that will leave you wondering what you would do if the ones you loved kept reappearing after death – and how far would you go if they didn’t? ( )

Break My Heart 1,000 Times is an unconventional young adult ghost story--part thriller, part mystery, with hints of dystopian fiction--and essentially no chills. Some years after a very poorly-defined cataclysmic "Event" has left ghostly images of millions of the dead visible to the general public, Veronica,an attractive young high-school student is targeted by a creepy teacher, who has suffered his own family losses. A second teacher, another victim of the "Event", is writing a book on the ghostly phenomena left in the wake of the catastrophe, and enlists the help of Veronica's boyfriend, Kirk. It is Kirk's task to film the specters, and he often takes Veronica along to dangerous areas of town in order to do so. Veronica herself is haunted by (and half in love with)a teenaged ghost boy, who appears almost every morning in her "steamy" bathroom as she prepares to towel off from her shower. (No fear: nothing the least bit steamy happens). This ghost, too, has a "tragic" back story that is gradually illuminated. While the plot is innovative, the characters are completely wooden..and, in spite of this being a ghost story, there is no spookiness whatsoever. For those reasons, as far as I'm concerned, the book fails almost entirely. Even the elements of romance between Veronica and Kirk are devoid of feeling. The heart mentioned in the title is almost completely lacking in this mediocre piece of fiction. I can't find it in my own heart to recommend it. ( )