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A review by felifirefly
The Apparition Phase: Shortlisted for the 2021 McKitterick Prize by Will Maclean
4.0
This mystery did a lot of things right. Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot.
What if you take a picture of a ghost and then terrible things start to happen? We're in the 70s in Britain and hauntology is starting to be a thing.
I loved everything about that first part of the book. The kids, the ghost faking, the drama. It was very well written and fast paced and I thought 'Okay, here's my favourite book of 2020, finally.' I actually got scared by one of the scenes and that never happens with me and books.
The next 3 parts then dealt with another cast of characters, another setting and although our protagonist still was part of the group, it felt was most definitely different from part 1.
That's okay, it really is and the book in its entirety makes sense. I guess I can appreciate that approach more with a re-read, though. My problem just was that I waited for answers about those first pages I so loved and waited and waited and thought: 'Okay, maybe in the next part'.. and I realized too late that those answers will never come and that the first part was some kind of 'preface' providing a background story of the actual story. And I liked the actual story. I just couldn't appreciate and enjoy it while reading because I so much wanted to read the rest of the before told story.
So, that's the reason this book is only 4 stars instead of 5 to me. Also, I wasn't a big fan of the last chapter before the Epilogue. It just wasn't for me and felt out of place and didn't add anything new. It was meant to be creepy but I was just.. bored? I am sorry, I really loved the book but not that chapter. It made me loose interest in the rest of the story, so it was kind of a bummer for me. Maybe it works for you. And if you are into mystery, haunting stories you should definitely give this debut my Will Maclean a try. I can't wait to read more by him because this really was a promising debut and I couldn't put it down.
What if you take a picture of a ghost and then terrible things start to happen? We're in the 70s in Britain and hauntology is starting to be a thing.
I loved everything about that first part of the book. The kids, the ghost faking, the drama. It was very well written and fast paced and I thought 'Okay, here's my favourite book of 2020, finally.' I actually got scared by one of the scenes and that never happens with me and books.
The next 3 parts then dealt with another cast of characters, another setting and although our protagonist still was part of the group, it felt was most definitely different from part 1.
That's okay, it really is and the book in its entirety makes sense. I guess I can appreciate that approach more with a re-read, though. My problem just was that I waited for answers about those first pages I so loved and waited and waited and thought: 'Okay, maybe in the next part'.. and I realized too late that those answers will never come and that the first part was some kind of 'preface' providing a background story of the actual story. And I liked the actual story. I just couldn't appreciate and enjoy it while reading because I so much wanted to read the rest of the before told story.
So, that's the reason this book is only 4 stars instead of 5 to me. Also, I wasn't a big fan of the last chapter before the Epilogue. It just wasn't for me and felt out of place and didn't add anything new. It was meant to be creepy but I was just.. bored? I am sorry, I really loved the book but not that chapter. It made me loose interest in the rest of the story, so it was kind of a bummer for me. Maybe it works for you. And if you are into mystery, haunting stories you should definitely give this debut my Will Maclean a try. I can't wait to read more by him because this really was a promising debut and I couldn't put it down.