Ghost Virus

Okay so: my opinion’s kind of divided on this. It started okay, but then there’s some aspects that kind of tripped me up.

The first thing was the romantic subplot. I have nothing against romantic plots in any of the stories I read, but the execution has execution has to be done well, and in this case, it was not. I’d be more willing to buy into it if it had been allowed to develop slowly, across the rest of the series, but that’s not the case here. As a result, the romantic connection feels very under-developed: a pity, because given more development, I might have been willing to buy into it.

The second thing was the way the plot developed. While I understand wanting to keep certain information from the reader to give the big reveal at the climax more impact, the necessary foreshadowing to lead up to that big reveal just didn’t feel very well-executed in this novel. In fact, there was a certain disjointedness about the the plot was developed and the foreshadowing delivered, so that while there was SOME impact at the big reveal in the novel’s climax, that reveal didn’t feel very earned. Instead, it felt like something that was dropped in there just to bring everything together and provide a plausible-seeming explanation for everything that had gone before.

The third thing was the characterization. The characters are fine, for the most part, nothing that’s utterly terrible about them - even though quite a few of them could stand to have their sense of humor aggressively adjusted with a wrench, given the egregious racism and misogyny on display, though I also understand that it’s a reflection of the real world. But even if I put that aside, I think the characters are just FINE: functional and mildly interesting, but nothing more than that. They’re middle-of-the-road: good enough to keep the story chugging along, but without any standout moments that helps them stick out in the reader’s mind after one has finished the novel. I think this affects the romantic subplot too, because if the characters are “meh”, then there’s hardly any urge to be invested in whatever romance they’re involved in, is there?

The one thing I did find good about this book, though, was the concept. I thoroughly enjoyed the concept used for the antagonist, and I will freely admit that I enjoy urban fantasy stories involving regular folks suddenly being forced to deal with supernatural entities - especially given how GRUESOME this one is. However, this is where the plotting and the characterization pull things down, because if this concept had been employed in a story with a better narrative and stronger characters, it would have been a standout read.

Overall, this was an okay read: sufficiently entertaining, but could clearly have been a whole lot more fun if it had been polished more. If the romance had been better-paced; the plot better-developed; and the characters better-written, I think this could have been comparable to Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London or Paul Cornell’s Shadow Police series, but it would have stood out compared to the other two because of its much darker and more horror-heavy tone. Sadly, that’s not the case, and the reader is left to contemplate what might have been had this story’s issues been addressed.