The Ghost

     The Ghost - Andrew Lowe   2/5

 
                                                               


   
      The premise to Andrew Lowe's debut novel sounds pretty exciting. When I saw it on Netgalley I was instantly intrigued and wanted to check it out. The problem is that the premise makes the book sound more exciting than it actually is. This is one of those novels that show a great deal of promise but never gains a great deal of momentum. I've read books with the same themes and they're executed a lot better than this one is. Don't get me wrong. Andrew Lowe is a talented writer, but the book limps along and I really felt obligated to finish it just to see what happens. The book is just boring and the end left me feeling as if I had just wasted three days of my life.

     The main character isn't all that exciting. He's a bit flawed and we watch as his life slowly unravels but it isn't really because of his past. It's because he's such a flawed person. This is a character that really has no depth and you don't really care about him at all. Every other character in the novel is supposed to create this big climax but you don't get to find out what it is until the book's nearly finished. If the book had been set up differently it could have been an exciting novel but Lowe is all about creating the atmosphere and what led up to the current events. This could have been explained a lot sooner and even strengthened the story, but that never happens. The book is called Ghost and when I finally I found out why I just didn't care.

      This is Lowe's  first novel it shows a lot of promise but it's still a first novel and one you can't really classify. Yes, we all know that boys can be cruel, and I can see the need for revenge, but when I'm reading a novel like this I want characters that I can relate to. I want something to excite me, and pull me in. Lowe has the talent to do that, but in Ghost there really is no momentum. If there's a message somewhere I must have missed it, and who knows maybe someone else reading it can tell me what I may have missed.

     Ghost for what it's worth is just an okay novel. You could do worse I guess, but if you're a fan of stories that interweave the past and present this one's for you. I do know that if Lowe releases another novel I'm going to read it just to see if he's improved. I wanted to like Ghost but in the end it just frustrated me.

   

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