'The Ghost Writer' by John Harwood

Genre: Neo Victorian

Another amazing read from an amazing university module, ‘Gender and Monstrosity: Late/Neo Victorian’ has provided me with some of my new absolute favourite books, including ‘The Ghost Writer’ by John Harwood.

What I loved about this novel was the surprises and the constant questioning of thinking you know what is going to happen next and then doubting yourself and the characters. There are countless times where I questioned if I, or the protagonist Gerard, even knew what was going on and who was behind it all; ghosts perhaps, or real living people? Enigma runs throughout the entire novel, even until the very last page, which had me searching to see if there was a sequel (there is not, sadly)! Now, this can be seen as a good or bad writing technique; is it better to spell out what has and is happening, or to leave the reader to fill in the gaps themselves. I can see the benefit in both, but in this case, I have come to like not knowing as I feel like it adds more to the story and contradicts the continuous enigma.

Another element I enjoyed was the interspersed ghost stories. The present narrative of the book is set in Mawson, Australia, in the late 20th century, while the ghost stories, written by Gerard’s great-grandmother, are set in the late 18th century. These ghost stories break up the plot while also adding to them, and I was always intrigued to see what the next story was going to be about. I also liked how there is a fear surrounding the ghost stories, are they actually harmless ghost stories, or are very something much more sinister.

I highly recommend ‘The Ghost Writer’, it is one of those books where once you reach the end you could easily flip back to the beginning and start all over again, for once you know the truth of the narrative it is more shocking to see all the clues and signs throughout the novel.

Rating: * * * * *