Jessica Woodbury's Reviews > The Ghost Notebooks

Much to like in this horror novel. Feels like it's very much set in the present day, but uses the old-haunted-house trope effectively.

Nick and Hannah leave the city to become caretakers of a small museum in upstate New York. Nick is the narrator, but it's his girlfriend, Hannah, who appears to be gradually more and more affected by the house. This isn't the kind of book that will actually scare you. It's not spooky or suspenseful, if anything it's almost more of a thriller with a ghost story attached as Nick looks back and tries to unravel what he missed and what went wrong.

One thing I thought about often while reading this is how the is-this-supernatural-or-am-I-going-mad trope is a tricky one to pull off these days. While a long time staple of the genre, this book has a character who's previously struggled with mental health which at first seems like it may add something new to the idea, but ultimately just had me feeling a little uncomfortable with the book's treatment of mental health. In particular I had trouble with the idea that a couple could be together for years (engaged, even) and share so little with each other about mental health issues. Secrecy is the key to the plot but it doesn't feel natural to the characters.

Readers who are sensitive to issues of depression, anxiety, and suicide should probably give it a pass as they're all major elements, particularly in the final third of the book.