Lisa Carey

This is billed as a ghost story, but that isn’t really the designation I would put upon it. Fantasy erotica maybe. Stranger than just ghosts or the paranormal. It is too steeped in fantasy to really capture my imagination at all. What is most frustrating is that the writer can actually spin a tale, and the beginning had some promise, despite the impossibilities it presented. Well, you cannot criticize that it isn’t realistic when you knew it was a “ghost story” going in, can you?

It has a similar plot thread to a book that I adore, [b:A Portrait of Jennie|6900349|A Portrait of Jennie|Robert Nathan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1459761270l/6900349._SX50_.jpg|1883139]. I say this to emphasize that it is not the impossibilities that make this book not work, it is the author’s inability to present those impossibilities in a way that makes you want to believe in them. I was far more interested in the backstories of the two main characters, a reclusive artist who saw ghosts regularly in his childhood and is grieving the long ago death of his twin sister, and the dead girl who returns from the dead, in the flesh, with her own story of tragedy and loss. This is why I say it is “billed as a ghost story”, because by definition, ghosts are spirits, not people, and they do not return in a flesh and blood incarnation.

The erotic part doesn’t really start until you are ¾ of the way into the story and invested enough to finish. I still contemplated just closing the book and walking away. Not that sex itself is bothersome, but oh my goodness PLEASE, I do not need pages of detailed explanation. I wasn’t looking for a textbook. I know how it is done. At the risk of a spoiler, the artists’ first sexual encounter is in a graveyard with a ghost. Sex with people is sometimes strange enough to picture mentally, sex with ghosts and dead (but not) girls is even stranger.

This might have been a 3 star read for me at one point. It deteriorated into 1.5 stars, and so I compromised at 2. This book came to me as a recommendation from a friend. I’m not sure how I am going to tell her about my reaction to it. Oddly enough, it has a number of 5-star reviews and an overall rating of 3.92. Just goes to show you how differently we readers can see things.… (meer)