Ghost Story

The other morning (and I’m talking 5 am early), I found myself thinking about how freaked out I would be if I saw a little boy’s face peeking in from outside the living room window. I realized then that Peter Straub’s story stuck in my head a little more than I thought it did.

When I finished Ghost Story, I wished that my mind was a little more complex and/or complicated that it actually is – that is, I wished that it worked this way when I write. I didn’t understand how well everything fit together in the story until I was near the end of it. Then I saw the full circle of just how well it all really did. Speaking of not understanding how it all fit together, I was slightly confused at the beginning – we meet Don Wanderly, a man who obviously just kidnapped a little girl, then he sort of vanishes and we meet the Chowder Society. Odd, but Ricky Hawthorne pulled me in a little more.

As I started the book, I was not excited to read it. I was less interested in it than the first two books, and was not as eager to read it as the books that follow it on our list – not because it’s not a good read (it is), but because of the reason I just stated. I will say that throughout the entirety of the text, it kept me guessing.

Along with the plot, of course we have the characters that create this story. I must admit that I really enjoyed the characters – the individuals that they were and the little “groups” that they made up. I actually have never read a book in which we follow a group of older gentlemen and I thought the Chowder Society was an awesome group with this deep, dark secret. Granted, the one thing that I did tend to dislike was the back and forth with the flashbacks. Now, I don’t think we could have done without them – because let’s face it, the story would be pretty confusing if we didn’t have that background info. I did like when we went back in the past with the stories from the Chowder Society, BUT I do think the only essential stories were from Sears (when he told them about Fenny at the beginning) and the story about Eva Galli near the end. Anyway, back to the characters – I enjoyed the Chowder Society and also the others that had their own little storylines (Stella, Peter, Jim, etc.).

Something else that I thought was excellently done by Straub was the atmosphere used throughout the entire book. Where I had issues with other little things, something that I thought was done perfectly was the atmosphere. He did a great job creating that spooky, edge of your seat atmosphere. He did it through the dialogue and the story, but what was done better than anything else was the use of the weather. From the start of the book, I thought, well, I’m not looking forward to winter. When I think about, I don’t know how many books I have read that were set in the winter season, but I liked how Straub focused on this weather. The weather sort of acted like another enemy for them. It became treacherous – hard to maneuver about in and it was deadly cold. It also added to them being stuck. When the storm came, they were literally stuck where they were, but in life they were stuck and they were scared. The snowstorm added to the scared, claustrophobia that was Milburn and the Chowder Society.

The only real issue I really had with the story was the end. Throughout the whole book, for me, the story/plot was great, as were the characters – then we have the end. The end of the book, and also the end of the Eva Galli vampire, werewolf, shapeshifter creature thing. Honestly, when I closed the book when I was completely finished the first thing that came to mind was – a wasp? Really…a wasp? I guess I just expected something more at the end.

Overall, did I like the book? Yes. Like I said already, I thought it was well written and the story itself was interesting.