The Ghostwriter

Book Review: The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark 📚

Rating: 4 Stars

I recently finished The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark, and it was a captivating read that kept me hooked from start to finish. 📚✨

The story begins in 1975 with the devastating tragedy of the Taylor family—two teenage siblings found dead under mysterious circumstances, leaving the only surviving sibling, Vincent, to bear the weight of suspicion for decades. Vincent grows into a successful horror writer, but the dark rumors surrounding that night never fade. 🕰️😔

Enter Olivia Dumont, Vincent’s daughter and a ghostwriter grappling with her own financial struggles. When she’s offered the chance to ghostwrite her father’s final book, she thinks it’s just another novel. However, Vincent has other plans—he wants to finally reveal the truth behind that fateful night after fifty years of silence. ✍️📖

What I really enjoyed about this novel was how well-paced and tightly plotted it was. Julie Clark’s writing style is engaging without being overly complicated, making it an easy and enjoyable read. The characters felt real and multi-dimensional, especially Olivia and Vincent, whose complicated family dynamics added depth to the story. 🎯👍

And I can’t go without mentioning the book’s cover—it’s absolutely stunning and definitely caught my eye before I even started reading. All in all, The Ghostwriter was a solid read that I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys suspenseful family dramas with a hint of mystery. I’m giving it four stars because while it was excellent and very entertaining, a couple of plot points could have been explored a bit more deeply. Still, a highly satisfying thriller! 🌟📘

⚠️This review was written based on personal opinions and experiences with the book. Individual preferences may vary⚠️

Complex Story of Generational Trauma. This is one of those tales that reads a touch slow - so be prepared for that - but which ultimately succeeds in having quite an emotional impact due to just how much force it lands with. When, to bring a bit of physics into the equation here, Force is mass multiplied by acceleration, a slow acceleration of a sufficiently sized mass can hit with the same impact as a much faster, yet smaller, object. This book's ultimate mass, all that has happened to each of these characters and all they have gone through as a result of these events, is truly rather substantial. In the end, you're going to see clearly just how these characters became all that they did... even as you may not quite get all the answers you may want as a reader, or perhaps things ultimately play out a touch differently here than you may want in "real life". Regardless, this book stays true to its story as Clark chooses to craft it, and she truly did a particularly great job yet again.

Yes, there is praise for both AOC and Kamala Harris within this text, so there will be some who love it for that alone and others who wish to defenestrate it for that alone, but I can also state that other than one character actively praising an event that is current for that character, the AOC/ Kamala lines in particular are one-offs and not truly central to the story.

Of at least slightly more concern, perhaps still not enough to deduct a star, yet enough to note in the review, is that this *is* yet another book where most straight males are written as antagonists and vile and evil - and yes, combined with the AOC/ Kamala line... again, could be divisive. But while annoying, it also works within the context of this tale as told, and is actually at least used well to enhance the impact of the overall story. Along these lines, there *is* also a gay married couple present, so do with that as you will. Again, I know some will love this and others will want to defenestrate the book over it, so you do you. I for one thought these characters were, again, worked into the story quite well and didn't seem as forced as I've seen these types of characters be in other tales by other authors, so it was neither here nor there for me.

Ultimately there is enough in this tale that various people won't like it for various side reasons. Read the book anyway for the actual main storyline... and maybe be prepared for the room to get quite dusty at a couple of points in particular.

Very much recommended.

I greatly enjoyed this mystery, with a father and daughter looking into the past to try to solve the mystery of the murders of her aunt and uncle. I was pulled into this and couldn't put it down. I read it in one day. I received an ARC from Netgalley.