delicate eternity logo
A haven for lovers of the written word
separate post

the word ghostWhat: The Word Ghost by Christine Paice

Who: Allen and Unwin

When: June 1st 2014

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Allen and Unwin in exchange for an honest review.

This is England 1973, and fifteen-year-old Rebecca Budde is in love with Dave. After one glorious summer, Rebecca is forced to move with her family to Brightley, a village with a puddle for a pond, and no excitement at all. If only Dave were there.

Very weird things are going on inside their new house, and even stranger things are happening in the village at night. Someone appears to be living in Rebecca’s wardrobe. Someone else is on the balcony, trying to get in. Things don’t make sense anymore as Algernon Keats steps from the shadows, his sister not far behind him. There’s no Dave, two ghosts, a pub, a dog and Alex March, a dark and brooding artist, living in the Manor House down the road, whose interest in Rebecca is both puzzling and thrilling.

What do Alex and Algernon want from Rebecca? What on earth does any of it mean? Is it possible to love a ghost? And what happens if he loves you back? The lights are out. Welcome to Brightley.

Rebecca thinks love is forever, but sometimes it’s not. And nor, sometimes, is death. The Word Ghost is a funny, moving story about what it means to find love, lose love and discover who you are when you live in a village with no street lights and a decidedly dark side.

2cats2

Oh, boy. I was so, so, so looking forward to this book. From the moment I saw the title and that absolutely GORGEOUS cover, I wanted to read The Word Ghost. And then I read the blurb and wanted to get my hands on a copy even sooner.

Sadly, this book did not live up to my expectations of what it would be like.

The whole time I was reading The Word Ghost, I kept on thinking: but what is the point? Now, I am aware that not every story needs a point, but pretty much absolutely nothing happened in this book. We have two romantic flings, a house change, and ghosts. But the romantic flings weren’t life changing, the move was inconvenient at best, and the ghosts were left off as a sort of side story.

I just couldn’t see the point of this novel. Which is really quite sad.

The best part of The Word Ghost was the ghosts. But the thing is – they were barely in it. They were in these choppy little scenes which had no depth or meaning to the overall story, and I was left wondering why they were included at all. There was no emotional gain or loss from them, there was no great life lesson learned about death – it seems like they were included just for the sake of including them.

Rebecca (our main character) barely interacted with the ghosts, and when she did it was only for a few minutes. The Word Ghost was by no means a ghost story, and yet I had gone into the book thinking that it would be. Or at least that they would play some kind of pivotal role in the storyline. But unfortunately, they seem like a plot device to me, and one which had no real substance or meaning, either.

The pacing was a bit all over the place, and sometimes it was hard to wrap my head around exactly how much time had passed between scenes and chapters. Sometimes it would randomly be told that a month had passed, and yet it seemed as if it was simply the next day.

I wasn’t able to connect with any characters, and I wasn’t a particular fan of any of them, either. The only character I enjoyed reading about was Algernon (one of the ghosts), but he featured all too little in my opinion. To be honest, I would have loved him to play a much larger role than the one he was given. He was complex, but his complexities and nuances were left untold and uncovered because of his little page time.

However, I did like the setting and the references to the 70s pop culture. I thought they were interwoven into the story quite nicely, but unfortunately neither were enough to raise my opinion of this book too highly.

All in all, The Word Ghost was a novel not entirely to my taste as a reader.

© 2014, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

Your Turn: Do you ever wish characters were featured more than they were? What was the last book you were disappointed by?

Tagged with: / /
separate post
Posted on: June 13, 2014 • By: Chiara

8 Responses to Review: The Word Ghost by Christine Paice

  1. I’ve seen bits and pieces about this one around the internet, but I really dislike books with no point. Shame, because the title really grabbed me, like you said!

    • Chiara says:

      Yeah, unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations :( I think it could have had a point – there was a lot of room for it, but the interesting parts were skipped over.

  2. Sounds disappointing that it didn’t feature the ghosts as much as you would have liked. Very meh sounding!

  3. Sorry to hear you didn’t like this one, it sounds like such a good read from the blurb and that title is pretty awesome, glad there were some good aspects though, the 70s aspect sounds fun!

    • Chiara says:

      I definitely think that there are people out there who could love this book, but the style just wasn’t to my liking, unfortunately. The 70s aspect WAS fun! I liked reading all the references. :)

  4. Kelly says:

    I’ve actually just started this one and I’m really enjoying it so far (only 50 pages or so in). I actually find the Jane Austen references really charming and Rebecca’s internal dialogue had me giggling as I read. She’s really quirky, and I’m ALL about the quirk. I haven’t got to the part where the ghosts are introduced, but hopefully soon. Awesome review, I think this is one book to be taken at face value and purely for entertainment.

    • Chiara says:

      I’m glad you’re enjoying it! I think it’s tailored to certain people’s tastes, and I am (unfortunately) not one of those people :(
      I really do wish the ghosts were featured more, and that more of their back stories were given, but oh well.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *