The Saturday Night Ghost Club

I can't remember where I heard about this hidden gem, but it seemed appropriate for the time of year - I was aiming for Halloween, but overshot it by a few days. Anyway the vibe is more 'coming-of-age' than haunt or horror, but it was still fun to be scared vicariously. The narrator, Jake Baker is twelve in the flash-back retrospect, not unlike Stand By Me (Stephen King's The Body in print), and that summer he makes a fast friend Billy Yellowbird, has his first major crush on Billy's older sister, Dove, and learns some family secrets. It is 1980s Niagara Falls, and the Birds are new to town. Prior to their arrival, Jake was a bit of a bullied loner, and hung out a lot with his uncle Calvin, who treated Jake like an adult, but was a bit show more of a kid himself. He is preoccupied with all things spooky and owns a tourist trap store on the strip called the Occultorium. This is like a magnet for kids - the Birds are no exception, and to help Jake cement his friendship with Billy, he dreams up the Saturday Night Ghost Club (Dove is welcome too, but has her own ghosts to confront). He takes the kids to a couple key sites in the area - Niagara is rife with urban legends and spooky stories, and real-life weirdos. The events deliver a good scare as promised - too good on one occasion, and Jake starts to pull away from his Uncle C a bit. He'd always been an little 'odd duck,' but in Jake's dawning maturity, he begins to see it as a problem, rather than an admired trait. Jake's parents are awesome (the Dad reminds me of the Dad in A Christmas Story) and Billy is a good egg who helps Jake gain the courage to stand up to his bullies. The crush on Dove is sweet - so typical for the age and era and so instrumental in Jake's growing up. I loved seeing Niagara from a non-tourist perspective - they just happen to live near a noisy waterfall - and the story was poignant on many levels. The idea of the brain and its power of memory figures prominently - Jake grew up to be a brain surgeon, so we get the scientific, but also the empirical, with the point being both are essential. In the end, "Memory becomes what we need it to be." show less

I've come to the conclusion that Craig Davidson/Nick Cutter and I were simply not meant to be.

I know everyone else is fawning all over this novel, but for me, there was very little magic.

Someone else said in their review of this that Davidson is a reader's writer. I have to respectfully disagree, as anyone who reads a lot can very plainly see all the strings Davidson is pulling. A seasoned reader will see all the support structure behind the pretty sets. I find Davidson's writing very obvious.

I won't give it all away here, but if you were to make a list of a stereotypical coming of age novel, what would you stick in that list?

- the main character is likely the kid who's a bit different, who doesn't fit in
- a kid who bullies him that show more he'll need to eventually stand up to
- a new girl in town who's simply too attractive and kind to him
- a quirky relative who's engaging and takes the main character under his wing
- a bit of a mystery
- a town that can be both fondly remembered, but also has the ability to harbour darkness

Yeah. That's this novel. A paint-by-numbers novel that has been done—and done much better—by others. Davidson takes fucking forever to get the story going, then telegraphs his revelations pages in advance, and tacks on a very clunky explanation toward the end of the novel, instead of letting it all come to the main character in a more organic fashion.

And then there's just some stuff in there that simply feels like filler. The Screaming Tunnel. The junkyard.

I love the sandbox Davidson/Cutter plays in, but everything he does is weak echoes of those that played in the sandbox before him, and did it all better.

If you want to read the better written—and much more magical—version of this novel, do yourself a favour and pick up Robert R. McCammon's wonderful Boy's Life. Read that, and you'll see how much this one pales in comparison.

And I'm done with him now. I'll never read another Davidson or Cutter book again. Life's too short. show less

I picked up Craig Davidson's new novel, The Saturday Night Ghost Club on a lazy Sunday morning and literally couldn't put it down until the last page was turned. Yup, that addicting.

Our protagonist is Jake Baker - we meet him as the adult neurosurgeon he is today and the young boy he was, living in Cataract City (aka Niagara Falls, Canada. In Latin, cataracta means waterfall), circa 1980. Jake is that odd kid out - overweight, shy with no real friends. He hangs out with his Uncle Cal, who owns the Occultorium on the tourist lined streets of the Falls. Cal believes in the otherworld, ghosts, conspiracy theories and more. When Billy Yellowbird moves into town, Jake has finally found a friend. And Cal has two members for his proposed show more Saturday Night Ghost Club.

"This city is haunted by ghosts. Uncle C used to say this, though not to scare me. He'd say it with a cocked eyebrow and an inscrutable smile, a merry jester beckoning me to embark on a grand adventure."

I could vividly picture the setting, having visited the Falls many times. The busy, congested, neon party that is Clifton Hill sprang to life. Davidson takes us behind those streets to the lives of the permanent residents of Cataract City. I appreciated the cultural references woven throughout the book....."We did what Canadian kids do on unbearably hot summer days: watched reruns of The Beachcombers and Danger Bay on the CBC..."

Initially there's a 'Stranger Things' feel to The Saturday Night Ghost Club - exploring the haunted landmarks and sites of the Falls. That's the setting, but the story is much more than that. Friendship, love, family, coming of age - and memory. "The brain is the seat of memory, and memory is a tricky thing."

Davidson is a one heck of a storyteller. His prose flow so easily and draw the reader into the world he's created. His characters leap to life and will break your heart. Those last fifty pages? So very, very good. And once you've turned that last page, head back to that first chapter again. You'll look at it with different eyes. An absolutely wonderful read. show less

I don't know where to begin. This story is sweet, nostalgic, dark, fun, and simply perfect. Honestly, if this were I show, like Eerie PA or Are You Afraid of the Dark, I'd watch it every single week, it would be so good! There aren't really any big twists, if you're paying attention, you know what's coming, but that's okay; this isn't supposed to be some big twisty thriller. If you want a sweet story about ghosts and family and friends and a fun 80's summer, then you need this book.

I was drawn to this book by its cover. It is a quiet coming-of-age story set during one summer in a small town on Niagara Falls in Canada, and the writing has an episodic feel to it, which is not my favorite style. However, the writing is quite good, and there are some lovely insights into the nature of memory and the stories we tell. Jake's weird Uncle C draws Jake and his new friend, Billy Yellowbird, into a "Saturday night ghost club" where he takes them to sites of tragedies around the town and tells a ghost story at each one. Whether there are actual ghosts depends on the reader's personal beliefs. The whole novel also functions as an old-fashioned "ghost story" in that things are not as they seem and there is an unexpected twist show more at the end. However, this story is less about ghosts and more about boyhood, nostalgia, and family. I liked it well enough but found it difficult to get caught up in the story, as I have read this type of thing many times before, so for me this was a mixed bag. show less

audio fiction (5 hrs 40 min) - three misfit kids (two of them quite troubled) and an eccentric uncle (also troubled in his way) have a series of spooky encounters in 1980s Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada (nicknamed "Cataract City" in a previous book by same author). CW/TW: all kinds of trauma and unpleasantness, relayed through scary stories and traumatic incidents.

Fascinating storytelling (reminds me a bit of Chuck Palahniuk, though Davidson's narrator has a different sort of voice), alternating between the present (Jake's current brain surgery patients in Toronto that often develop unexpected characteristics) and the past (ghost hunting days as a 12-y.o. in 1980s Niagara Falls, including a relatively tame Halloween during the "after" show more SNGC period). A bit darker than I thought it would get (plenty of tragedy and grief) but fairly memorable and very unique. show less

This book is a joy to read. The 80s nostalgia coupled with the endearingly naive perspective of Jake et al make it a great throwback coming-of-age story. The curious Uncle C and the unraveling of his history is what makes the story tick, which was both a pleasant and an unpleasant surprise. On the one hand I enjoyed the substance introduced by Uncle C's backstory but I also wished that the book had retained a more whimsical and horror-fantasy vein, just because I was in the mood for some good Autumnal ghost stories. Ultimately though the theme of memories and the subjectivity of the minds eye (and the way that it melds those memories in order to protect us) is strongly framed by this novel. I look forward to future works by Davidson.