madmaud77's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
leslielikesthings's review
3.0
Slow start, then I got very into it and eager to know what was going on (though I did guess quite a bit). The ending was a little convoluted and then just kind of stopped during the climax, which is not my favorite kind of ending.
shxlby98's review against another edition
2.0
Want to read five books in one? This one is for you. To be fair gothic books aren’t my cup of tea but I tried. The twist at the end was anticlimactic and a little confusing since they built it up and then settled with a basic ended
wordsmithlynn's review against another edition
3.0
Overall, John Harwood's The Ghost Writer was a disappointment to me. Gerard is a shy boy in Australia obsessed with his mother's stories of her idyllic youth on the beautiful estate of Staplefield in England. When Mom finds Gerard going through her dresser drawers and reading a mysterious hidden manuscript, she flies into a rage and punishes him by never again speaking of Staplefield. A few years later, Gerard acquires a pen pal named Alice, a young woman paralyzed in an accident. As an adult, Gerard goes to England in hopes of meeting Alice, who is conveniently unable to meet up with him due to a health crisis. Are Gerard's suspicions aroused by this? Not sufficiently for him to do anything as crazy as, say, stop writing to her and start dating real girls.
Gerard returns to Australia and years pass before he once again returns to England, this time at the urging of a Miss Hamish, the executor of his dead aunt's estate. He hopes to finally be united with Alice and to uncover the truth behind his (now deceased) mother's reluctance to reveal more about her life in England. Instead he finds more mysteries and a series of very creepy Victorian-style ghost stories ostensibly written long ago by his great-grandmother. It becomes clear that the stories somehow predicted what would happen many years later to Gerard's mother and aunt in their youth; and that the stories might also contain some warnings about Gerard's own future.
The ghost stories penned by the great-grandmother are excellent. They read like a series of lost tales by M.R. James or Sheridan LeFanu. Unfortunately, the larger contemporary story that frames them left me disappointed and annoyed. Gerard isn't a very likable hero -- he hasn't got a good word to say about anyone other than the idealized Alice, whom he's never met, and whom he's freakishly content to continue NOT meeting. For decades. The resolution to the mystery of why his mother left England is fairly predictable, and the resolution to what became of her sister is so unlikely as to be almost comical.
I would have preferred a short story collection consisting of the disturbing Victorian-style ghost stories written by Gerard's great-grandmother. Those really gave me the willies. They're set out in a different typeface from the main story, so it's actually quite easy to just skip through and read those stories by themselves. Do it. You'll save a lot of time and you won't have to throw the book across the room like I did when you read the unlikely and contrived ending to Gerard's story.
Gerard returns to Australia and years pass before he once again returns to England, this time at the urging of a Miss Hamish, the executor of his dead aunt's estate. He hopes to finally be united with Alice and to uncover the truth behind his (now deceased) mother's reluctance to reveal more about her life in England. Instead he finds more mysteries and a series of very creepy Victorian-style ghost stories ostensibly written long ago by his great-grandmother. It becomes clear that the stories somehow predicted what would happen many years later to Gerard's mother and aunt in their youth; and that the stories might also contain some warnings about Gerard's own future.
The ghost stories penned by the great-grandmother are excellent. They read like a series of lost tales by M.R. James or Sheridan LeFanu. Unfortunately, the larger contemporary story that frames them left me disappointed and annoyed. Gerard isn't a very likable hero -- he hasn't got a good word to say about anyone other than the idealized Alice, whom he's never met, and whom he's freakishly content to continue NOT meeting. For decades. The resolution to the mystery of why his mother left England is fairly predictable, and the resolution to what became of her sister is so unlikely as to be almost comical.
I would have preferred a short story collection consisting of the disturbing Victorian-style ghost stories written by Gerard's great-grandmother. Those really gave me the willies. They're set out in a different typeface from the main story, so it's actually quite easy to just skip through and read those stories by themselves. Do it. You'll save a lot of time and you won't have to throw the book across the room like I did when you read the unlikely and contrived ending to Gerard's story.
littleminky93's review against another edition
3.0
3.75 stars, I think.
It was very weird, but in a "I can't stop reading this, what is this, I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS" way... so a good way, haha! That ending though...
It was very weird, but in a "I can't stop reading this, what is this, I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS" way... so a good way, haha! That ending though...
melinum's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
edmundsson's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
3.5
mary__koe's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
jlbell's review against another edition
1.0
Like another reviewer said, this book has all of the ingredients for a great, scary book, but then just does not follow through. It starts out promising with snooping little boy, a possibly crazy mum, hidden photos and stories. Here are my main issues with it:
1. The time period never seems clearly defined until Gerard says that he now has email. At one point near the end, he says something about being 35 years old. That was a big span of time to cover and I did not feel like there were any real indicators that got us that far in time.
2. The stories in the story that did not connect to the plot were confusing filler. The only story I found really compelling was the first with the man searching for the perfect painting.
3. Did I mention it gets confusing? The side stories and the main story all start to have so many characters, it gets tough to remember who is who. Perhaps that was the point, to blur reality and fantasy. I doubt it, though.
4. The wordy descriptions. Dear Goddess, did we need to know every damn corner of the spooky house? That is how people write when they are trying to fulfill a word count and makes reading it boring.
5. There are things we are just expected to believe.
a. That a young man in love with a mystery woman wouldn't Google the hell out of that woman. This reminded me of 50 Shades of Grey where we were to believe a college girl didn't have an email or cell phone.
b. That a woman who has sex with her sister's fiancé would then want to kill that sister. Um, shouldn't that be the other way around? Wouldn't the betrayed sister want the cheating couple dead? I guess in the end that is what happened, but it does not clear up the original set up.
c. Said murderous sister who had no real motive would have access to a fluoroscope AND know how to hide it AND know how to wire it up to the house so turn on when she turned her light on AND the dying sister would not notice anything weird in her own room.
6. As soon as a letter arrives from Mrs. Hamish, the secrets are all revealed for the reader who can deduce simple clues.
7. WTF was that lazy ending?
I thought this book would be an actual scary story that would make me feel uneasy and well...scared. It was not what I'd hoped so I am still on the hunt for a truly scary book.
1. The time period never seems clearly defined until Gerard says that he now has email. At one point near the end, he says something about being 35 years old. That was a big span of time to cover and I did not feel like there were any real indicators that got us that far in time.
2. The stories in the story that did not connect to the plot were confusing filler. The only story I found really compelling was the first with the man searching for the perfect painting.
3. Did I mention it gets confusing? The side stories and the main story all start to have so many characters, it gets tough to remember who is who. Perhaps that was the point, to blur reality and fantasy. I doubt it, though.
4. The wordy descriptions. Dear Goddess, did we need to know every damn corner of the spooky house? That is how people write when they are trying to fulfill a word count and makes reading it boring.
5. There are things we are just expected to believe.
a. That a young man in love with a mystery woman wouldn't Google the hell out of that woman. This reminded me of 50 Shades of Grey where we were to believe a college girl didn't have an email or cell phone.
b. That a woman who has sex with her sister's fiancé would then want to kill that sister. Um, shouldn't that be the other way around? Wouldn't the betrayed sister want the cheating couple dead? I guess in the end that is what happened, but it does not clear up the original set up.
c. Said murderous sister who had no real motive would have access to a fluoroscope AND know how to hide it AND know how to wire it up to the house so turn on when she turned her light on AND the dying sister would not notice anything weird in her own room.
6. As soon as a letter arrives from Mrs. Hamish, the secrets are all revealed for the reader who can deduce simple clues.
7. WTF was that lazy ending?
I thought this book would be an actual scary story that would make me feel uneasy and well...scared. It was not what I'd hoped so I am still on the hunt for a truly scary book.