REVIEWED BY Micky Barnard
The Ghostwriter by Alessandra TorreMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
THE GHOSTWRITER is my joint favourite book of 2017 and I've read upwards of 200 this year. This is a contemporary suspense read with challenging subject matter but with the kind of writing that beautifully navigates you through the difficulties.
There are three main characters in this story but Helena is at the helm. She's an author but this time she needs a ghostwriter to help her tell this story and it's her autobiography she's telling. Her husband Simon is at the fore, as is the ghostwriter Mark.
"I hate Simon with my entire soul, and I love him with every other inch of my body, and neither really matters."
Helena is a character that is rather hard to like. She was a hermit to all intents and purposes. The why of this was a question I asked of the book all the way through. I felt compassion for her but the more I got to know of her behaviour to other human beings, of the realities of her parenting, the more I struggled with who she was. I questioned her mental health, diagnosing disorders but it didn't really matter. Over time, I came to an understanding of who she was, of her self awareness and her fight for others. I admired her.
A lot of this story is about Helena and Simon, on the face of it their marriage was uncomplicated, underneath, it was so complicated that it took the whole book to fathom the depth of the secrets, lies and subversive deceit. I'm not even going to speak to my feelings regarding Simon but it felt 'off' early on.
"Maybe we're normal. Maybe every husband drives his wife crazy. Maybe every wife falls short. But it doesn't feel normal. It feels like we are at war. A war I am losing."
As Mark helps Helena to tell her story, something special happens, a chink of light, of friendship. Mark was my ray of good in this book and I admired his friendship towards Helena, complex though it was. Mark was carrying all the same questions that I had as a reader, waiting and waiting for the answers.
"We are climbing the hill towards the climax, though Mark doesn't know that yet. He has no idea that all of these pieces, all of the stories, are blocks of dynamite, carefully placed and positioned for eventual explosion."
The book started as hugely intriguing, even a little mellow. The suspense built and built to crescendo of need to know the answers and I blew through the last 30% to reach the conclusion. What happened was utterly unexpected, the whys, the how's and the tragedy. The context of the answers were difficult to read but ultimately fulfilling in what was a excellently developed story with characters that don't often come along.
I am a fan of all the genres Alessandra Torre has written, I've read all of her books but I favoured the 6e series. THE GHOSTWRITER is her best work to date. I am emotionally drained and at a loss after reading this book because it was just that good.
A copy of this book was provided by the author through netgalley in return for a honest review.
Reviewed for Jo&IsaLoveBooks Blog.
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