p 141 - so far this isn't really much about the ghost being in love.

NO. NO NO NO NO NO. ( )

I couldn't pass up the combination of a talking dog, time travel and a ghost. Started out okay, but the tone grew increasingly hokey, the plot became kind of random and rambling, and by the end it felt like a bad YA novel - cutesy and condescending. The slide from 3 stars to 1 was gradual (I kept hanging on for the talking dog, I think)so by the time I was totally fed up I was skimming the last 8 pages. I feel cheated - I still want a story with a talking dog, time travel and a ghost. ( )

Started out interestingly enough. A man goes to a shelter to buy his girlfriend a dog and he picks the one that has been there the longest, sight unseen. On the way home he slips in the snow and hits his head. He was supposed to die, but didn't and things go very wrong in the universe.
It reminded me of The Christmas Carol gone awry. The gist of the story is that we are always hardest on ourselves and there are part of ourselves we are not proud of, but they are still a part of who we are.
I liked the story, but wasn't pleased with the ending. ( )

The world is going crazy. Ben Gould was meant to die at a certain time, and yet he didn't. The angels can't figure out what's going to happen next, and neither can Ling, Ben's ghost. Ben, clueless to his own significance, is just trying to figure out what to do now that he and his girlfriend German have broken up. Welcome to The Ghost in Love.

Like all of Jonathan Carroll's books, this one begins with a brilliantly strange premise, and goes crazy. Unlike what I've read of Jonathan Carroll thus far, it is very controlled, beautifully deliberate, and what unfurls from the very first page builds throughout the novel. The attention to detail is stunning, the prose is delicious, and the book is as satisfying at the last page as it is at the start.

I recommend this book to anyone who is intrigued by the premise, and more, to anyone who enjoys a well designed story. The structure, while linear, is not chronological and the book is interesting on a technical level. Moreover, the book will make you /feel good/ and wholly satisfied. Or, at least it made me feel that way. ( )

Ogni tanto un libro serio ci vuole