The Spirits Up: A Novel
by Todd Babiak
19 Members (3.88)
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Description
Warm, witty, and unsettling all at once, here is an unforgettable story of a family desperate for something to believe in. Benedict is an inventor whose life's work is a clean energy machine. It has just made him an overnight sensation and his family is suddenly wealthy. Benedict's wife, Karen, and his teenage daughters, Charlotte and Poppy, are proud of him. But there are problems Benedict is too busy to see: Karen is deeply unhappy in the marriage and contemplating an affair, Charlotte, show more who is dealing with a chronic illness, is growing more and more distant, and Poppy is cracking under the pressures of her social circle. And there's another problem. Benedict holds a rather terrible secret about his clean energy machine. Then, on Halloween night, an accident threatens to make everything far worse for the family. The accident kicks off a series of hauntings in their beautiful, historic home in affluent Belgravia, and the ghosts make it clear that they want something from them. Karen has to save her daughters -- and herself. Meanwhile, Benedict is consumed by the knowledge that he has to achieve the impossible by Christmas. As time ticks ever closer to the revelation of his secret, he spirals further into despair . . . The Spirits Up is the story of a family haunted by the charmlessness of middle age and the cruelties of modern teenage life. Part social satire and part contemporary ghost story (with a hint of Dickens's A Christmas Carol), it is an exploration of a timeless question: what happens when there's nothing to believe? show lessTags
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stories from Canada
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Author Information
12 Works 296 Members
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2021
- People/Characters
- Benedict Ross; Karen Sjöblad; Poppy Ross-Sjöblad; Charlotte Ross-Sjöblad
- Important places
- Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Important events
- COVID-19 pandemic
- First words
- Only nine kids came that year, nearly all of them dressed as heroes.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It was not Karen's favourite rendition but she would probably cry again tonight, at least once, and she did not care where her family slept as long as she could hear them breathe.
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Statistics
- Members
- 19
- Popularity
- 1,336,673
- Rating
- (3.88)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
