Author: Julie Clark
Published: June 3, 2025 by Sourcebooks Landmark
Format: Hardcover, 368
Genre: Thriller
Blurb: June, 1975.
The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets.
Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write.
After fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975.
My Opinion: I’m still not sure why this book resonated with so many readers. The Ghostwriter promises a haunting family mystery and emotional reckoning, but delivers it in a fragmented, often confusing package. The narrative jumps between timelines and perspectives with little warning, leaving me constantly flipping back to figure out who was speaking and whose trauma we were unpacking.
The word “mother” is tossed around like a plot device, but rarely clarified; sometimes it’s Vincent’s, sometimes Olivia’s, and sometimes I wasn’t sure the author even knew. The structure feels intentionally vague, perhaps to mirror dementia and buried memories, but it ends up muddying the emotional impact rather than deepening it.
There’s a story here, somewhere beneath the scattered chapters and cryptic dialogue, but it’s buried under stylistic choices that prioritize atmosphere over coherence. By the time the big reveal lands, I was too disengaged to care. The emotional payoff felt diluted, and the characters never quite came alive for me.
If you enjoy decoding a novel like it’s a puzzle missing half the pieces, this might be your thing. But for me, it was more ghost than substance.
The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets.
Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write.
After fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975.
My Opinion: I’m still not sure why this book resonated with so many readers. The Ghostwriter promises a haunting family mystery and emotional reckoning, but delivers it in a fragmented, often confusing package. The narrative jumps between timelines and perspectives with little warning, leaving me constantly flipping back to figure out who was speaking and whose trauma we were unpacking.
The word “mother” is tossed around like a plot device, but rarely clarified; sometimes it’s Vincent’s, sometimes Olivia’s, and sometimes I wasn’t sure the author even knew. The structure feels intentionally vague, perhaps to mirror dementia and buried memories, but it ends up muddying the emotional impact rather than deepening it.
There’s a story here, somewhere beneath the scattered chapters and cryptic dialogue, but it’s buried under stylistic choices that prioritize atmosphere over coherence. By the time the big reveal lands, I was too disengaged to care. The emotional payoff felt diluted, and the characters never quite came alive for me.
If you enjoy decoding a novel like it’s a puzzle missing half the pieces, this might be your thing. But for me, it was more ghost than substance.
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