Review by Frank Plowright

Effie is a bright and creative child who doesn’t get on with school. She’d much rather be writing her own stories than completing assignments, and spends so much time considering them that other aspects of life pass her by, such as the school bus. While initially scared, in the end she’s far happier hanging out with a bunch of friendly ghosts in the woods than attending school. Turns out they’re also at school, learning to do the things ghosts do, and by the way it isn’t every child who can see them.

It’s a strong concept from S.M. Viduarri, and cheery designs giving the ghosts individual personalities and motion rich art from Hannah Krieger set the anticipation for a treat when Effie finds herself more at home at ghost school. However, having successfully transmitted the hard concept work, Viduarri can’t take his story anywhere interesting. The danger of lost souls is painstakingly laid out, leading to the inevitability of a quest for a lost soul, and Effie never progresses beyond the character she is at the beginning, herself a type of lost soul. There is a big revelation as to why ghosts have been limited in dealing with lost souls, which makes sense of Effie’s presence, but it’s a rather arbitrary restriction to be overcome.

Viduarri builds everything toward a crisis for Effie, and there’s a clever way of tying who Effie is to the ghosts, but never convincingly enough. It’s if All My Friends Are Ghosts is itself an insubstantial wisp that needs an Effie to supply greater cohesion.