Reviews

Ghost Lover: Stories by Lisa Taddeo

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unhingedfemaleprotagonist's review against another edition

3.0

I loved Taddeo’s other books, Animal and Three Women. Ghost Lover is ok. The stories are good, but they feel like condensed versions of Animal repurposed over and over again. The characters are always women in some sort of existential crisis, there is always at least two of the following: a dead dad, a miscarried, sick or dying baby, a shitty unrequited love, a situation of sexual assault and/or rape, tension between the woman narrator and another strong female presence in her life. I like dark subject matter, and as a writer I get there are ideas you get hooked on…but admittedly these same ideas over and over began to bore me a tad.

vacantbones's review against another edition

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2.0

Let me be clear: I wanted to love Ghost Lover. Taddeo's Animal was one of my favorite books of 2021. There were things I liked about this collection, in the end - I enjoy Taddeo's writing style and her use of bizarre metaphors, the way these stories explore the rawness of womanhood. Unfortunately, all of these stories begin to blend together because the main characters are so indistinguishable from each other. They're chasing men who won't give them the time of day, preoccupied with their weight and appearances, grieving a youth that will never return. They were sexually abused by father figures and emotionally neglected by mothers. Within an hour of finishing this one, I already cannot tell you which specific details I'm remembering belong to which woman.

Like many others point out in their reviews, the fixation with weight in this collection is particularly troublesome. Sure, fatphobia is deeply ingrained in the culture that shapes upper middle class white women like those in this collection, but the fact that it is so present in all of these stories feels incredibly unnecessary.

Rounding my rating up to 2 stars because I really liked "Air Supply" and the way it portrays friendship, and for the overall writing style.

yasmin15's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

alizaslibrary's review against another edition

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so so hard to ge through, i give up.

mckmillican's review against another edition

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4.0

Very repetitive themes! It feels like Taddeo had one story she wanted to tell and she told it nine different ways in the collection. But - outstanding writing.