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Loading... The Ghost Writer (2004)by John Harwood
Work InformationThe Ghost Writer by John Harwood (2004)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Cleverly written and very twisty plotting. However, I was not so enthralled with the story. Mind you, I totally went outside my comfort zone in reading a gothic-paranormal romance theme. I found the writing was clever and well-crafted. But the interleaving story structure with several manuscripts from one of the supporting character's collection of novels distracted me. These episodic tales seemed to be unrelated to the plot and I couldn't reconcile their inclusion at all. The entire plot developed in a weirdly convoluted way. The ending seemed to just drop off a cliff. I think I was rather lost a few times in the twists. Not to imply another person wouldn't like the book, but verging on gothic-thriller, it is difficult to recommend. A boy in Australia struggles under the rule of his overprotective mother but finds an outlet for his feelings in his penpal in England. As his relationship with his penpal becomes more serious through the years, his relationship with his mother becomes even more strained. When she dies, he is determined both to meet his love face-to-face and also to solve the mysteries in his mother's past. However, he's not prepared for how the two parts of his life are unexpectedly joined. This is a strange but cool novel involving stories within stories, mysteries on every level, and a perfectly creepy gothic feel throughout. I'm still not completely clear on how some of the embedded stories relate to the whole, but overall it's a great read. Wow, okay, so once I finally sat down to read this book it got so much better. This novel takes a little concentration. The main story concerns Gerard, a sort of sad sack Australian librarian who spends most of his life under the confining care of his mother who becomes mysteriously overbearing after the narrator, at age ten, finds a photograph and a letter locked away in his mother's vanity. Coincidentally, that was the same year Alice, his pen pal and, over time, "invisible lover" begins corresponding from England. This story is taken up mostly with Gerard trying to figure out a way to be with Alice, even though both his mother and Alice, herself, are resistant. Throughout his journey to unite with Alice, Gerard comes across Gothic-style horror stories written by his Grandmother. These stories are really quite something and alone are worth reading the book. They are creepy and strange and just delightful. This novel is really interesting in that it is good, not great for about the first 200 pages. Then beginning in the last 100 pages, it ramps up into "oh my, I have to keep reading this, I don't care what time it is." Then, in the last 5 pages, it kind of loses it. I'm still wondering if maybe I missed something. All told, I'm glad I read 'The Seance' by Harwood first. I loved that story, and I'm not sure I would have read it if I had started with this one. That said, I'm glad I read this one if for nothing else than those fantastic little horror stories. no reviews | add a review
Fiction.
Mystery.
HTML: In this tantalizing tale of Victorian ghost stories and family secrets, timid, solitary librarian Gerard Freeman lives for just two things: his elusive pen pal Alice and a story he found hidden in his mother's drawer years ago. Written by his great-grandmother Viola, it hints at his mother's role in a sinister crime. As he discovers more of Viola's chilling tales, he realizes that they might hold the key to finding Alice and unveiling his family's mystery-or will they bring him the untimely death they seem to foretell? Harwood's astonishing, assured debut shows us just how dangerous family skeletons-and stories-can be. .No library descriptions found.
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